***

The beggar-like magician shook the collapsed great mage’s neck vigorously and shouted.

“Master, wake up! Quickly! It’s time to use teleportation magic again!”

Fortunately, the hundred-year-old great mage couldn’t see himself being subjected not to elder respect but elder ab*se by his disciple, as he remained unconscious.

“If my baby droplet escapes, will you take responsibility?!”

In the darkened room with curtains drawn at midday, a woman with bloodshot eyes trying to revive(?) her master’s consciousness, and beside her, inexplicably, a water tank.

At the moment when bubbles escaped from the parted lips of the blonde beauty imprisoned in that tank—

Bang-!

The door flew off, and a white bear— no, Chamuka strode in. Completely soaked from head to toe.

Though it was bright and sunny outside, Chamuka was thoroughly drenched as if he’d bathed with his clothes on. He quietly called out to the culprit who had made him this way.

“Mother.”

“Oh my. You escaped from that? How did you get stronger in such a short time?”

Astrid blinked with unfocused eyes, then muttered “Ah, the curse was lifted,” and released her grip on her master’s collar.

Eckle’s body fell limply back onto the bed.

Meanwhile, Chamuka’s eyes narrowed upon spotting Leticia in the water tank.

“You’ve imprisoned Leti, too?”

“Imprisoned? Our Leti naturally likes being in water. And with his power, he could get out immediately, so how could this be imprisonment?”

“She’s probably being considerate of your feelings.”

“Hmm, that could be. Our baby loves me so much.”

Astrid, speaking whatever came to mind, seemed exactly like a drunk person.

Since humans enter a state similar to intoxication when deprived of sleep for too long, this wasn’t entirely wrong.

Astrid stroked the tank containing Leticia and grinned.

“Now my baby and I will go back home.”

While she was speaking, a large shadow fell across the curtain, but Astrid, with her vision narrowed from lack of sleep, noticed nothing and continued laying out her plans.

“You take care of the rest of the family and— hmm, no. Should I take Kalia with me? No, no. Our baby’s magic power should be enough. Once Master wakes up—”

At that moment, the window flew open.

Ferik, who had jumped through the fluttering curtains, plunged a syringe into Astrid’s neck.

“Y-you…”

Despite being the one who constantly knocked Ferik unconscious without warning, Astrid wore an expression full of betrayal as she collapsed into Ferik’s arms.

Soon, her even breathing sounded with soft snores.

“Where do you think you’re going in this condition?”

It was a mutter tinged with disapproval.

Ferik gathered Astrid in one arm, then met the gaze of Leticia, who was staring with wide eyes from inside the tank.

He showed the syringe he had used on Astrid’s neck to Leticia and explained.

“Don’t worry. It’s just a nutritional supplement—”

“Father. Let’s go rest with Mother now.”

“We need to get the child out first.”

“I can take care of that.”

Chamuka pulled the cart with the water tank toward himself with a clatter.

The water in the tank sloshed with the sudden movement, and for the first time, Ferik felt an emotion toward his eldest son that was concrete enough to put into words.

“…I want to throw him away.”

Why had his emotionless self been so fixated on the narrow-minded idea that he absolutely had to have children?

In truth, without that excuse, he couldn’t have found any rational reason to spend the night with Astrid, but Ferik easily blamed his past self.

“Perhaps I should discard this unfilial son now and make the child my firstborn. Astrid would probably like that.”

Looking back and forth between his eldest son, now a full-grown adult who couldn’t simply be discarded, and Leticia sitting quietly in the water tank, Ferik felt Astrid stir in his arms. He sighed softly and warned as he left the room.

“If you touch him carelessly, your wrist will go flying, understand?”

“Do you think I’m my father?”

Despite looking like father and son to anyone who saw them, Chamuka retorted this way.

Of course, if Colin had heard this conversation, he would have remembered the threats he received from young Chamuka and shuddered at the thought of “like father, like son,” but Chamuka was confident.

He firmly believed he was different from his father.

Compared to his father, who took his mother to the bedroom at all hours, Chamuka considered himself much more wholesome.

“I’ve given you fair warning.”

With those final words, Ferik left the room.

Chamuka discarded that warning beyond his consciousness as soon as Ferik left, then opened the tank’s lid. He unnecessarily reached in with his hands to lift Leticia out.

“…? Thank you.”

Although Leticia could have made stairs out of water and climbed out if she wanted, she first thanked Chamuka for helping her out.

“Lord Chamuka? If you would step aside so I can get out of this tank…”

“….”

“Lord Chamuka?”

Leticia looked down at Chamuka, who remained motionless while holding her, and tilted her head in confusion before reaching out her hand.

As her hand lightly tapped Chamuka’s arm, his soaked body immediately dried.

She then made her own wet hair and face fluffy and dry as well.

Despite this, Chamuka remained frozen in the same position as when he had lifted her out.

“Are you still tired?”

Finally, as Leticia tried to climb out of the tank herself, Chamuka’s head tilted toward her.

Even as Chamuka’s face drew closer, Leticia only thought, ‘A whisper?’ until their noses were almost touching. Only then did she see herself reflected in Chamuka’s unfocused eyes and…

“Aaack!”

…she doused Chamuka with a torrent of water.

The powerful deluge, matching Leticia’s shock, caused Chamuka to collapse face-down on the floor, twitching.

Still conscious despite a water blast that would have knocked most people unconscious, he continued to squirm—

No, was he really conscious?

He hadn’t seemed in his right mind from the beginning.

‘If he were in his right mind, Chamuka wouldn’t have tried to k-k-k-kiss me…’

“No way!!!”

Leticia fled past the door Chamuka had smashed, tank and all.

While Leticia sat slumped at the bottom of the tank in denial of reality, the water in the tank diligently carried her far away.

Her current state of mind was similar to witnessing a talking portrait.

An impossible thing had suddenly happened in reality.

Chamuka’s confession, which she hadn’t given much thought to before, suddenly came to mind.

“That’s it! The bad water in the capital affected him…!”

Although Chamuka had been unconscious most of the time since arriving in the capital, Leticia desperately denied reality.

Our innocent Lord Chamuka couldn’t possibly do such a thing…

***

While Leticia was in shock and escaping reality, Aina was using the clues Leticia had gathered to track her brother’s traces.

Seeing how Leticia had been dragged away, she would probably be suffering among the deranged Basilinte family for days, so it was better for Aina to move ahead on her own.

It was certainly not because she was afraid of receiving jealousy from the Basilinte family for having been with Leticia all this time.

Certainly not.

“Ah- a young man who looked like that? I think I saw him a few times last winter. I remember because he was tall. But why are you looking for him?”

“Oh, it’s about a debt. That guy borrowed money from my father and hasn’t paid it back! It was my mother’s inheritance!”

“My goodness. What a terrible fellow. Come back tomorrow, would you? My wife might remember better.”

“Of course! I’ll come again tomorrow!”

Aina bowed politely with a bright smile, then turned around. And as soon as she turned, her smile vanished.

What do you mean you saw him a few times? As if a spy would walk around frequently enough to be remembered.

Aina glanced back at the shop name and strode toward the inn where Leticia should be.

That place was probably connected to the Empire’s spies.

So they were trying to lure her in as she searched for one of the Empire’s spies.