Chapter 127

‘I didn’t know that I would be so proud of my jewels and even use them as material to craft on my wand.’

Luciel looked here and there as she turned the wand around.

With the joy of finally casting attribute magic, Luciel, with her grandfather’s permission, went all over the place to help people with magic.

‘Litte Madam, you’re good at magic now, aren’t you? Thank you so much!’

Feeling proud of the servants’ reactions, Luciel muttered after eating the sweets she received in return.

“Shall we go to the greenhouse garden?”

Actually, there was something that bothered her.

Since Luciel planted the jewel on the soil, Phoenix rose has been silent. Even so, she came once in a while and looked into it.

Luciel approached the Rose, who still had a closed bud, and spoke to her.

“Phoenix, what happened?”

Then, as Luciel’s wand drew closer, the Phoenix rose began to tremble. It seemed to react with the mana around her jewel-studded wand.

“……Why are you doing that?”

As Luciel anxiously rolled her eyes, the bright red rosebud slightly opened. Soon, Phoenix’s drowsy voice ready to fall asleep again could be heard.

―Hmm……Luciel? I was sleeping so well, why did you wake me up?

Luciel urgently asked.

“Ah, Phoenix! Were you sleeping?”

-Yeah, I fell asleep without realizing it. I slept soundly because of the mana that your jewels gave me.

“Ah……so did I wake you up for nothing?”

―Yes. So while you are already here, can you give me a sip of your mana to drink?

Suup.

Luciel collected mana and gave it to the Phoenix Rose. Then the stardust from its petals shone more brilliantly.

―Hmm! This cheers me up.

Luciel asked what she had been curious about the whole time.

“……When will the resurrection happen?”

―You have to wait until I fill up my energy. It seems to get faster when I get some sleep.

“Then get some more sleep. I will give you more jewels.”

– Thank you.

The rose of the phoenix shook her body like she was dancing. Luciel buried all the jewels she made next to the Rose stem, while deeply wishing with the hand that touched the soil.

‘Please, resurrect soon.’

Then the bud of the phoenix rose closed again. After giving water with the golden watering can, Luciel muttered as she left the garden.

“Ah, I have magic class today! I completely forgot.”

Fortunately, she had an hour to spare.

It seemed like it would be a good time to go to the library and study for a while.

Luciel, as always, went to the bookshelf near her dedicated sofa. The heavy magic book that she had read last time was neatly placed on the table next to the sofa.

‘Did Grandpa Veron let it here for me? I’ll put some cookies in return.’

Flap, Flap.

As Luciel, who was diligently flipping through the pages while carefully reading its contents, tried to open the bag as usual, something like the smell of the wind hit her.

However, Luciel who was engrossed in reading the book didn’t pay any attention. Maybe because she was too focused. She didn’t even know that a shadow had fallen over her and while she was muttering through her mouth as she read the text, a sudden small voice was heard.

“Luciel.”

“……Kizef?”

As she raised her head, her eyes met Kizef’s, who was staring at her. As soon as their eyes met, his finely curved eyes and slightly raised lips made a pretty scene.

‘He’s prettier than most women.’

The more I think about it, the more strange my relationship with him is.

In the past, Luciel was nothing more than an accessory that ruined Bellstein……but now many things have changed.

Every time she faced Kizef, there was a strange heartbeat-like echo in her heart.

Throbbing.

Luciel, who had been immersed in thought for a moment, came to her senses at Kizef’s words. He murmured as he looked at the sofa where Luciel was sitting.

“I used it when I was young, it’s been a while since I saw this.”

For a moment, Kizef, who seemed to be drenched in memory, blinked his eyes.

“Ah, yes, I heard about it. Kizef, look at this. It’s so comfortable.”

Saying that Luciel buried deep inside the sofa. She was as cute as a fluffy snow rabbit.

“Class is starting soon, what are you doing here?”

“Oh, it’s already that time?”

I looked at the clock and an hour had passed.

“But why is Kizef here? You have swordsmanship training, so I thought you were not coming to magic class anymore.”

“……I’ll listen to it today.”

“Why?”

“……Just because.”

That’s because if he goes there, he can see Luciel even for a moment under the official excuse of class.

He was stubborn and slightly skipped training. He decided to get punished instead, but that was a secret to Luciel.

When she asked why, Kizef simply turned his eyes away with red earlobes and asked.

“…Will you show me your wand?”

“Ah, right. I was supposed to show you.”

“Yes. It seems like everyone has already seen it but me…”

In fact, he listened to what the servants had to say. He heard from Veron that Luciel often comes back to read books these days.

These days, we rarely see each other, so I came here to see her for a while.

“….”

For some reason, two faces overlapped in Kizef’s expression as he slightly spoke in a small voice. The Duke’s face when he was a little sad and Leoni’s face, when he was sulking around.

‘After all, they are family, so they look alike. Cute…’

Luciel smiled slightly. But this wasn’t the time to have fun in her thoughts.

“Let’s go to class!”

“All right. We are really late…Shall we run?”

“Yes.”

Kizef, who nodded his head lightly, soon grabbed Luciel’s hand. Before long, they arrived at Gillard’s study.

“Huh? You two came together. Welcome.”

“…Don’t make it obvious that you’re a couple.”

Gillard and Eres said one after another, as they stood side by side.

Today’s class was very interesting because it was about higher attributes than the basic four attributes.

“To get a higher-level attribute, you have to have more than one attribute. After I had the basic attribute of land, I obtained the water attribute in a different way, having met two attribute conditions, I was able to acquire wood attribute.”

“Ah, Grandpa’s wood attribute was a higher attribute. Now the question has been resolved.”

Luciel’s eyes narrowed and she nodded her head. Eres opened his mouth in admiration.

“Wow……One is difficult, but two. After all, Teacher Gillard is the best!”

“……”

Looking at Kizef, who has two attributes, the basic attribute of wind and the higher attribute of darkness, Luciel thought that he was also great.

After the class, Luciel secretly summoned her wand.

“I can now use elemental magic too.”

“What is it, your attributes have been manifested? These jewels! How did you do it?”

“It is a secret.”

“……If it’s a secret, why bother talking about it, Luciel?”

Eres was frustrated and annoyed, and Kizef took Luciel’s wand and swung it once. Four twinkling jewels seemed to illuminate the surroundings.

‘I can feel Luciel’s pure mana. It’s transparent and pretty because it resembles its owner.’

For some reason, Kizef was pleasantly surprised by Luciel’s mana.

“I want to touch it too.”

“No.”

And he hated that Eres also felt this refreshing mana of Luciel.

Kizef avoided Eres who stretched out his hand while swinging the staff once and returned it back to Luciel’s hand. Then he whispered into Luciel’s ear.

“Your wand, don’t hand it over to anyone.”

“Huh? Okay.”

Luciel involuntarily clenched her wand and nodded her head. For some reason, her cheeks turned red.

“……You guys, I’d like to ask you to show affection only when the two of you are alone.”

Eres mumbled with disgusted eyes. Kizef was about to leave first, pretending he didn’t hear any of it. However, when he saw Eres approaching Luciel, his feet immediately stopped.

“Oh, Luciel. My sister wants me to give you this. What did she say again? She had some difficulty studying or something like that.”

Luciel’s expression clouded with anxiety when she received the note from Eres.

“Really?”

“Well, but what kind of research is that….” (Kizef)

Kizef, who quickly read the atmosphere, approached and tried to ask what was going on, but when Luciel looked into his eyes, he bit his mouth tightly.

“No. It’s nothing. Did Sister Erika tell you when her next holiday is?” (Luciel)

“Ah……sister, took a weekend off last time, so she might be busy for a while. Do you want me to ask her when it’s her next holiday?”

“No, it’s okay, thank you. Goodbye, Eres.”

Luciel grabbed Kizef’s hem. Since it means that she had something to say, Kizef also greeted Eres.

“Bye.”

“Go away, dude.”

He glanced at them both and murmured as if Eres disliked something.

“… I am very lonely today I think I came to Bellstein Castle for nothing.”

* * *

Under Soliaphe’s command, the subjugation of Munraken was swiftly carried out.

After two days of devising a strategy according to her command and figuring out the terrain, they decided to explore the base where Munraken was actually located.

First, the reconnaissance team and wizards dispersed and began to search to get critical information. After crossing the last valley, they reached the white salt cave and finally found a trace. Footprints, excrement, and tufts of hair were found.

―It looks like we found their den. Enemy movements are not detected. They are sleeping deeply.

―Most of them are adults, and the number is about four or five.

―There is also a den here. There are about four of them.

It was found in the vicinity of the salt cave, but there were as many as four dens. Each of the caves had a different entrance, but the inner maze-like paths all led to the central salt cave.

It was like an ant nest.

―The number is smaller than expected. Take a closer look around the area.

Soliaphe delivered commands through the telecommunication channel.

―There doesn’t seem to be anything other than the dens near the salt cave area. As Duchess Soliaphe said. Let’s see if there are any other monsters.

It was the report of Jarga who went to the scene.

―What is the situation inside the salt cave?

―There is nothing wrong, only the fact that there is a large spring is a little uncommon.

―Sam was there. What is the internal mana flow in the salt cave?

To Soliaphe’s question, the scouts stopped responding for a moment.

―Can’t you hear me? Please grasp the mana flow in the salt cave.

Then, another wizard immediately measured the mana using a magic tool and reported it.

―The magic value is 70, which is quite high.

―What was the reason that the communication line was cut off earlier?

―Oh, I don’t know. It’s normal now.

The two-day exploration came to an end. Munraken, who started their activities at night, accounted for about half of the total.

The Duke, who was listening to the reports through the telecommunication port with Soliaphe in the rear barracks, said.

“If you add them all up, there will be about twenty.”

“It’s not a small number, but it’s not a very large number. There have been times when I have dealt with more numbers than this.”

“All that’s left to do it’s hit them?”

Soliaphe calmly nodded her head.

―Everyone, after you are done with recognizance, erase the smell and traces and then return to the camp.

That night, Soliaphe and Jarga, who had previously faced Munraken, took turns explaining battle tactics and weaknesses to the knights in detail and repeated practice and training.

Before going to sleep, Louivid who was looking at Soliaphe and the people around said.

“When it gets bright, we will start our attack.”

“Yes, sir.”