Chapter 52
Fiance (2)
“H-Hey, over there....”
“Wooow....”
Arriving at the city of Leinrant while dragging around a body left completely ragged by the maids’ hands.
The moment Ciel walked through the streets in her outing clothes, the eyes of the passersby all gathered on her.
“Even if we’re inside the city, this is still the North. Dressed like that, you’ll catch a cold.”
Saying that, I approached her and handed over the coat Maria had prepared.
“Aren’t you going to put it on me yourself?”
“Ah, was that how it’s normally done?”
At Ciel’s words, I asked back with an indifferent expression.
Come to think of it, didn’t they say there was some kind of etiquette for handing things to a lady?
... Like I care. She can figure it out herself.
“My apologies. As someone once said, this is my first time dealing with something like this.”
“A-Ah, no! It’s just....”
When I answered blankly like that, Ciel immediately waved her hands in denial.
“It’s just.... I’m so happy....”
Taking the coat I handed her, Ciel simply lowered her head with a bright smile, as if it delighted her that much.
‘No, seriously, why is she reacting like this to me...?’
About three hours had passed since I started observing her to figure out her true intentions.
During that time, I ended up being dragged all over every alley in the city of Leinrant as Ciel relived her childhood memories.
“Do you remember this place? The tree we used to climb together has grown this big now!”
“Is... that so?”
Places I could no longer even remember.
And yet Ciel, leading me around with a cheerful smile, remembered every single place we had passed through in childhood.
‘So we wandered this far out back then? I must’ve been pretty stifled at the time.’
Only after hearing Ciel’s explanations did those places start coming back to me.
As I looked around them, I also observed Ciel—more precisely, the strange mana I could feel from her.
‘Back then I could only vaguely sense it, but now I understand!!’
The foreign mana emanating from Lady Ciel.
The moment I confirmed it, I could finally guess why Ailasis had coveted her—and why they ultimately couldn’t make use of her.
‘No matter how I thought about it, she never seemed like someone on my level. So there was a reason behind it after all.’
The instant the mystery unraveled, disgust welled up inside me.
But only for a moment.
“Young Master Klein?”
At the sound of Ciel calling me, I stopped my thoughts and answered immediately.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, it just seemed like you were thinking about something else.”
As she spoke, Ciel kept carefully watching my expression, clearly worried.
‘This has become more troublesome than I expected.’
A beauty anyone would turn to look at.
And yet all I felt was faint exhaustion and awkwardness.
My goal was the restoration of Leinrant.
There were already mountains of problems piling up in front of me. I didn’t have the luxury to spend my time enjoying married life.
‘It was a political marriage anyway. I was planning to break it off once the timing was right....’
I could more or less guess why she was treating me favorably.
Childhood memories are always romanticized, after all.
But I had absolutely no intention of accepting those feelings.
‘The longer I drag this out, the deeper the emotional wound will grow. It’s best to make things clear now.’
Having reached my decision, I called out to her with a faint sigh.
“Lady Ciel.”
“Yes?”
“You don’t have to keep worrying about how I feel like that.”
After starting like that, I carefully chose my words.
I was never interested in marriage or romantic relationships to begin with, so we should annul the engagement as soon as possible.
The moment I opened my mouth to say that—
Crackle—!
A signal came from the contract mark drawn on my shoulder.
It was a warning sent by the Banshee I had stationed in the sky in preparation for unforeseen situations.
What she had detected were five living beings carrying hostility.
And every single one of them possessed a mana core.
‘Even in all of Leinrant, there are only a handful of mages with cores of that level.’
Which meant these were mages from outside.
‘Normally, I wouldn’t care what they did among themselves, but....’
Even while thinking that, my hands were already swiftly forming hand seals.
“If the territory’s people get dragged into it, that changes the story.”
Looking at the people still walking around nearby, I immediately summoned a Skeleton on the spot.
[Answer my call. Your guide summons thee.]
Rumble...!
Since it was a spirit body created in haste, it had no additional armament attached.
But I immediately moved it to shield Ciel’s back.
KWA-BOOOOM—!
“Kyaaaah?!”
“W-What was that, an ex-explosion?!”
“Everyone run! Run away—!”
Together with the deafening blast, screams erupted everywhere.
‘No casualties. But....’
Rage surfaced in my eyes the moment I recognized the spell that had been fired at us.
An offensive spell detonated in the middle of a city.
It was Fireball—the common spell most widely used by fire-element mages.
“To notice it from that far away... it seems the rumors didn’t exaggerate.”
A lofty, arrogant voice that seemed to look down on others struck my ears.
At the same time, five figures revealed themselves.
All of them wore robes glowing with a reddish hue.
“Judging by your attire, you don’t seem to be from Felician. Ailasis, then?”
The moment I pointed out the material of their robes, the lips visible beneath the hoods curled upward.
“So perceptive, too. That’ll make this conversation much easier.”
Saying that, one of them stepped forward and slowly pulled back the robe covering himself.
What revealed itself from beneath the robe was a black-haired woman, just like Ciel.
Just like the voice I had first heard, her arrogant eyes looked down on me.
“It is an honor to meet the famed Young Master Klein.”
“For something you call an honor, that greeting was rather violent.”
Replying to the mages’ casual bow, I raised the demonic energy gathered in my hand even further.
Perhaps everyone had fled after the attack earlier, because there were no life signatures nearby.
“An urgent matter concerning the ducal house forced us to commit such discourtesy.”
Though she said that, her face was filled with mockery.
“Lady Ciel left the main house without permission, so His Grace ordered us to bring her back immediately.”
If they were going to look down on me first, then I had no reason to show courtesy either.
With a cold sneer, I answered the woman.
“Did he order you to bring back Lady Ciel herself, or her corpse? That spell earlier was clearly meant to kill.”
“Haha! Surely not.”
The woman laughed in an exaggerated manner as she looked at me.
“Unlike you, someone of Lady Ciel’s caliber would consider that nothing more than a warning.”
As though she had nothing more to say to me, the woman turned toward Ciel standing behind me.
“Lady Ciel La Ailasis.”
At the call, Ciel slowly stepped forward.
“I will not ask where you have been for the past eight years. Please return—”
“Return? Says who?”
But if they thought I’d back down this easily, they were mistaken.
At my voice cutting her off, a trace of irritation crossed the woman’s face.
“I don’t know what happened within your family, but now that Lady Ciel has arrived in Leinrant, she is a guest of our house.”
Stepping forward as I spoke, I continued.
“You tried to harm that guest, and you think you can let it pass without even a single apology?”
Just as the woman frowned and was about to say something—
“This is a matter concerning the Ailasis family. We would appreciate it if you refrained from interfering.”
A man who had silently observed the situation from behind spoke in her place.
‘Looks like they’re finally getting heated.’
The subtle emotional shifts flowing between them.
Sensing it, I pressed the provocation further.
“If you didn’t want interference, you should’ve handled it in your own territory. What kind of thuggery is this in someone else’s backyard?”
“...!”
“You unleash magic in the middle of a city, then say we shouldn’t concern ourselves because it’s your business?”
Now the gazes directed at me were filled with unmistakable hostility.
“What? Should I head to the middle of Ailasis territory right now and start swinging my sword around too?”
At those words, the woman who had been suppressing her anger finally seemed to hit her limit.
“A place like Leinrant dares interfere in Ailasis affairs...!”
“A place like Leinrant?”
Just as I continued deliberately grinding away at their patience—
“Enough!”
A man instantly cut through the tense atmosphere and warned me.
“Do not provoke the main house any further, Young Master Klein.”
Watching the man release his mana as though trying to threaten me, I twisted my lips.
Trying to intimidate me with that pathetic level of mana.
Absolutely laughable.
“Quietly hand over Lady Ciel to us. Otherwise—”
At the very moment the exchange between me and the man was about to continue—
The air changed.
And then something strange happened.
“Ghk?!”
The man suddenly bent over, then abruptly began collapsing inward on the spot.
“What the—what is he suddenly doing...?”
My confusion lasted only a moment.
The instant I checked the man’s condition, even my eyes widened.
Despite the man desperately trying to straighten his body, it continued shrinking smaller and smaller.
It looked as though invisible walls from every direction were crushing him inward.
“What is this?! What’s happening?!”
“Young Master Klein used some kind of trick?!”
“No, this isn’t necromancy—it’s magic! Everyone, cast Dispel...!”
The other four mages poured mana into him in an attempt to free the man whose body kept shrinking.
“Kghhhhhhh...?!!”
But no matter how much mana they poured into him, there was no sign of his body returning to normal.
‘This isn’t ordinary telekinesis. It’s as if space itself is moving...?’
The moment I turned around after confirming the man’s condition—
“M-My Lady, please stop! What is the meaning of this...?!!”
Alongside the man’s scream, the source of the abnormal phenomenon twisted her lips into a smile.
Crack! Craaack!
Before anyone even had time to react in horror, grotesque noises echoed from the shrinking man’s body.
The sounds of bones twisting, breaking, and shattering.
“A-Aaaah?! GRAAAAAAH—!”
Eventually, with the man’s horrifying scream, every sound in the area ceased.
What remained there afterward was not a person, but a crimson cube.
A perfectly square lump of flesh made by compressing a human being.
“...!”
“W-What in the world...?”
Confusion, shock, and terror mixed together into silence.
But both the mages’ gazes and mine were fixed on the same person.
Creeeak—!
Eight stones floating in the air twisted in place, reshaping themselves into sharp spikes.
“Ciel...?”
The innocent smile she had worn until moments ago vanished, revealing her true expression.
Pitch-black eyes tangled chaotically together, and a sinister aura surpassing even killing intent.
Ciel La Ailasis possessed all of it within herself as she smiled brightly while looking at the “work” she had created.
“No, no. Interrupting a date after eight whole years was already bad enough, and then you dared speak nonsense to Klein.”
As though stitched forcibly onto her face like a sewn doll, the curved mouth formed a smile.
And at the same time—
BOOOOM—!
The gravity across the area grew even heavier.
It wasn’t some special spell or technique, merely pressure released through raw mana output alone.
“What is this...? This is on the level of the family head...?!”
As the horrified mages swallowed their voices—
“So? What do you think, Klein?”
Still smiling, Ciel looked at me and spoke.
“For your sake, I returned after becoming this strong over the past eight years.”
Overwhelming mana powerful enough to make my entire body tingle.
As I endured it and stared at Ciel’s face, a thought crossed my mind.
Everything I said before about her looking better—I take it all back.
My fiancée had returned far more insane than I ever could have imagined.