CH 5

thefinalcinderella6-7 minutes 10.07.2022

She looked up and gulped. ——She managed to keep the cold sensation that crawled up her back from showing on her face.

“You’re so beautiful tonight that I could hardly recognize you. You are the image of a beautiful witch who enthralls the hearts of all pitiful men.”

“…You flatter me, Lord Kenneth.”

“Those are my true feelings.”

Kenneth said. At first impression, his tone was light-hearted, but it was frivolous compared to Bright. With his reddish-brown hair and eyes, Kenneth, the heir of a duke, fell into the category of handsome men.

An ordinary young lady would have blushed or enjoyed the game of love with him at all costs. But for Wisteria, he was someone she didn’t want to meet. She had encountered him a few times before, but it was enough for her to decide that she couldn’t be friendly with him.

——The words “beautiful witch” tend to sound like nothing but an insinuation.

“Is the golden-eyed gentleman accompanying you again this evening? He has everything one could ever hope for, and now he’s trying to get his hands on the beautiful witch?”

“…He did me the favor of being my companion. He is a kind person, after all.”

Wisteria obliquely hid her face behind her fan as she answered nonchalantly. She wanted to divert Kenneth’s attention from Bright, if only a little.

But Kenneth continued.

“My, my. I’m sure there are plenty of ladies who would love just even a piece of that kindness. …Or perhaps, it’s because you have something special?”

Wisteria puzzled over the end of his sentence that was suddenly added.

“What do you think I have?”

“The only thing he lacks.”

Wisteria’s heart jumped despite herself. ——For a moment she felt as if she had been told that the only thing Bright lacked was a wife, and she was it.

But Kenneth would never say such a thing. She belatedly felt ashamed of herself for having such flighty thoughts.

She tensed her face and said plainly, I don’t understand.

Kenneth’s scornful smile deepened and he told her in clearer terms.

“He is the heir of the powerful magician, Duke Reuning. Fate has been very cruel to make the heir of the Reuning magicians unable to use a single bit of magic.”

But I suppose the gods willed that other men would be too pitiful if he didn’t have at least that flaw, Kenneth shamelessly continued.

Wisteria gasped.

“Miss Wisteria, I understand that you’re engaging in magical research. Is this not of great interest to a man who couldn’t use magic?”

“…I fail to see that. Is it not discourteous to arbitrarily guess someone’s intent when you are not that person in question?”

“I beg your pardon. You’ll understand if you think about it a little. The Reunings are a family that takes being able to use magic for granted. The fact that their heir is unable to use magic is much more than a mere inconvenience. I cannot believe that the person in question doesn’t care about it.”

Wisteria felt anger rising up inside her heart even as she answered in a subdued voice. The man in front of her clearly held ill will.

Bright was such a brilliant man that he was bound to attract jealousy from his own sex. He had a cheerful and open personality and was well-liked, so he had more friends and supporters, but those who were jealous inevitably took advantage of his lack of magic. But even then, the feelings that Kenneth exuded were too much to be mere jealousy.

——Bright certainly was incapable of magic. Almost all members of the bloodline of Duke Reuning were capable of using magic to various degrees, so it was an unusual constitution.

But even such a shortcoming was easily supplemented by the brilliance that Bright himself radiated.

Wisteria was also researching the “Land of Grey Dawn,” and by extension, magic, for her own desire, and by extension, Bright.

——But Bright had never once tried to take advantage of her.

The eyes she turned on Kenneth naturally became a glare.

Kenneth gave her an apathetic stare, as though she had spoiled his fun, and then suddenly smiled a cold, dark smile.

——Oh, there are some who would gossip so, he added, as if he had heard it from someone else.

“Reuning is a title given only to those who possess noble and transcendent powers–someone without magic is a failure of a Reuning, they say.”

Wisteria gasped at the words that suddenly and blatantly revealed his malice.

“You…!!”

As soon as she raised her voice without thinking, a scream tore through the air.

She turned her head in surprise and widened her eyes.

The chandelier seemed to glow with a strange radiance, and immediately after she noticed that, something like a flaming arrow shot out and assailed the people below.

Among them, she saw a young man with dazzling silver hair. Wisteria quickly shielded those nearby with her body, and as soon as she saw flames leaping at Bright all at once, she thrust out her own hand.

“——<Absorption>!”

The moment she shouted that, the flames that were leaping upon Bright and the others twisted all at once and were drawn towards Wisteria.

As soon as the fire, which had been drawn and twisted, gathered in the palm of her gloved hand, it vanished.

All the fire was extinguished in an instant. It was as if they were crushed by Wisteria’s hand.

She lowered her clenched hand, her breathing slightly ragged.

After a quick glance to make sure Bright, who looked shocked, and the people he was protecting were not injured, she turned her attention back to Kenneth.

“What do you plan on doing? This is unaccepta—”

“What are you talking about? How terrifying, perhaps someone used magic to interfere with the fire above our heads. It truly is dangerous.”

Kenneth accepted Wisteria’s harsh glare with no intimidation at all and even gave her a wry smile.

And behind Kenneth, who wasn’t even surprised, she noticed a gaze directed at her–not surprise, but of cold disdain.

That seemed to indicate that the malicious accident that had just occurred was not the result of Kenneth’s intentions alone.

“——With the Reunings’ magic, a mistake of that magnitude would have been nothing more than a stumble on the roadside.”

Kenneth scoffed coldly.

Just as Wisteria’s anger flared…

“Wis!”