CH 8

When Wisteria attended a certain evening party, some of the participants got into an argument, which even led to a duel. The fact that both parties were magic users cemented that it would lead to a bad outcome.

The two sides aimed their magic against each other, and the clashing magic had an unexpected effect.

The magical elements that were floating around them mutated.

As a result of the mutation, they were turned back into miasma.

Wisteria, who had been present at the scene, still occasionally dreamed of that bizarre scene.

The air in that gorgeous hall lit by the firelight was suddenly filled with a black soot-like substance. It looked like a swarm of bees or a thundercloud, and it spread out as though exploding.

——And then.

“What the hell is this…!! Gwaaah!!”

“Eek! Nooooo!!”

Screams one after another, people fleeing, falling, and being trampled. But the miasma attacked all of them equally.

Even Wisteria, who was trying to run away, couldn’t escape it.

Black sand covered her body, and she let out a faint scream before losing consciousness.

The next time she woke up, she found her adoptive mother and father exhausted and in tears, and Rosalie with red eyes.

She remembered that Bright came to visit her too a few days later.

“It is truly a miracle that you woke up without any aftereffects.”

The doctor told her in astonishment.

Soon afterwards, Wisteria learned that those who had been in that place of madness and breathed in the noxious miasma had sustained injuries that couldn’t be ignored to various degrees, and some had even lost their lives.

Wisteria was the only one who didn’t suffer any aftereffects. At first, it was said that she was lucky, but as her progress was observed, they realized that it was strange that she had survived exposure to such a noxious miasma.

——Wisteria was then made aware of a peculiar constitution that she didn’t know she had.

It was precisely after that incident that people started talking behind her back about her being a witch or sorceress. There were probably people who thought it was strange that only one person was unscathed.

Wisteria was jolted back to consciousness by the sound of Benjamin’s exhale.

“It’s frustrating. We don’t know much about the nature of the miasma, and I’d even go to the ‘Land of Grey Dawn’ to research it if I could. If I had resistance, I would gladly become a guardian.”

“What are you talking about? Even if you had resistance like Lady Wisteria, you would never make it back alive if you became a guardian.”

The man next to Benjamin said, exasperated. But Benjamin wasn’t discouraged.

“Ah, then if I live the same life as Lady Wisteria, will I be able to acquire resistance?”

“…Then, Benjamin, would you like to try on a dress first?”

“Huh!? T-That’s, well…!!”

Benjamin’s cheeks turned red in panic, and Wisteria let out a little burst of laughter. The other man also laughed, and for a moment there was a congenial air in the mansion, which looked eerie and uncanny from the outside.

It was past noon when Wisteria left the laboratory. She rode in the carriage with the attendant who had come to pick her up. As she was thinking absentmindedly, a thought occurred to her.

(Ah, I wonder if the “Gloire Marie” will open soon.)

She recalled her sister, who was upset that she couldn’t buy the pastries she had been looking forward to the other day.

Rosalie was looking forward to trying different pastries during tea time.

She had planned to go home right away, but she told her attendant that she had changed her mind about her destination.

Seeming to be a popular shop, Gloire Marie was located on a main street. However, the carriage stopped nearby due to the large number of carriages, lines, and people.

Wisteria disembarked from the carriage with her attendant and leisurely made her way to the shop.

Outside the restaurant, there was a terrace where young gentlemen and ladies were enjoying tea and sweet treats.

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Suddenly, a silver radiance caught Wisteria’s eye.

(…Huh?)