A few days after learning that Michael was staying in Meldorf.

“Is it not working?”

“Mm… I’m not sure…”

“Just like when you create a light orb, send the blood from your heart down to your soles.”

That day, Cedrion had planned to teach Odelia the basics of flight magic. Since she often tripped and fell, he thought learning it might help her regain balance before she hit the ground.

However, unlike usual, Odelia was struggling to keep up.

“Hmm… Then, why don’t you try making a light orb first?”

“Okay.”

Wondering if she had forgotten how to channel mana, Cedrion had her do something she was used to. But to his surprise—

“…That’s strange.”

For some reason, Odelia could barely produce a faint, flickering glow in her palm.

Something was off. Now that he looked at her closely, her complexion seemed unusually pale…

“Ode, are you feeling sick?”

“H-huh?”

“Your face looks pale. Did something happen?”

“N-no!”

Odelia quickly shook her head, so vigorously that the ribbon on her bonnet fluttered.

“I’m not sick. I’m fine.”

“Really?”

“…Did something happen with His Highness?”

“N-no?”

She waved her hands and shook her head at the same time. Her reaction was a little too frantic, but Cedrion didn’t think much of it.

‘Michael must be bullying her again,’ he thought, nothing more.

After all, Odelia’s nanny was at the blue-roofed manor, and knights from the royal palace were stationed there as well. Surely, the adults were taking care of things. Cedrion, still just a thirteen-year-old boy, didn’t think to consider it further.

So, he simply assumed that Odelia’s downcast expression was due to her failure in magic.

“Well, there are days like this. When I was your age, magic didn’t always work for me either.”

Speaking lightly on purpose, Cedrion plopped down under the shade of a tree. After hesitating for a moment, Odelia quietly sat beside him.

“Cedion.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t think I can come tomorrow.”

“If you can’t come, you can’t come. What do you mean, ‘you don’t think’ you can?”

“Mm… His Highness said he wants to play again tomorrow. But he usually doesn’t want to play with me because I annoy him… so I don’t know what will happen.”

Odelia fidgeted with her fingers as she spoke.

“Nanny, Mary, and Jin are going to the neighboring estate tomorrow.

“The neighboring estate?”

“Mm-hmm. Father is coming next week, so they have to prepare for that.”

If Odelia were alone, she would have summoned the merchants, but since Michael was staying at the mansion, they were likely going out to buy supplies.

“So, there won’t be any adults at the mansion?”

“No, the knights will be there, and Baron Alterman’s young master is coming too.”

“I see.”

The Alterman Barony managed Meldorf in place of the Lure family, who resided in the royal capital. They were a fitting choice to oversee the prince and the Lure heir.

There was no reason for Cedrion to worry.

Odelia and Michael were just children who didn’t get along, and they were surrounded by plenty of adults.

Having grown up in the Norhart Grand Duchy, loved and protected by retainers and servants, Cedrion thought nothing more of it.

The next day.

As usual, Cedrion went to his hideout—the forest behind the blue-roofed mansion in Meldorf.

Odelia had said she might come, and visiting Meldorf had long become a part of his routine.

‘It’s kind of boring.’

He used to enjoy wandering around on his own, but after spending almost a month with Odelia, playing alone felt oddly lonely and dull.

He tried napping under the broad shade of a tree, climbed one to munch on some fruit he had picked from the forest, and even skipped stones across a small stream—but nothing seemed fun.

‘If you have siblings, do you get to have fun like this every day?’

It was a thought that would have horrified anyone who actually had siblings, but Cedrion had no way of knowing. At the grand duchy, the only children his age were retainers’ sons, like Franz Nielsen. This was his first time playing so freely with another child.

‘Michael must be playing with Odelia today too.’

As ripples spread across the water from his skipping stones, Cedrion’s thoughts drifted.

Michael had called Odelia ugly. But from what he remembered of the prince, he had been as angelic-looking as a child. Maybe it was some kind of rivalry?

‘Maybe now he’s realized how lovely Odelia is and wants to get closer to her.’

Michael had probably grown into a beautiful child as well, so it would be nice if they got along.

It would be great if Cedrion could visit the blue-roofed manor, help them bond, and play together. But since he had hidden his identity as a Norhart, that was impossible.

‘They’re betrothed anyway. Once they get close, I’ll reveal that I’m from Norhart. They’ll both be shocked.’

Thinking it was as simple as that, the boy bit into a green apple he had picked earlier.

It was at that moment—

‘…What is this?’

A sudden, ominous feeling made the back of his neck prickle.

‘This presence…’

Cedrion instinctively sharpened his senses. Somewhere, a flow of mana had arisen, clashing against the magic within him.

He, who carried the first blood of Arcadia, possessed a high affinity for mana, just as he was born with great magical power. Because of this, whenever someone used magic and a flow of mana arose, he was able to sense it faster than anyone else.

And yet, in this vast forest, there were no other humans capable of using magic aside from Odelia and himself. If a mana flow generated so far away was stimulating him this strongly…

‘What kind of grand magic could be used near here…?’

Moreover, the mana flow he vaguely sensed felt somewhat unfamiliar—its sensation was slightly different from the magic he had learned.

What on earth was this…?

As if drawn in, Cedrion moved in the direction where he felt the movement of mana.

Then, suddenly, Cedrion began to accelerate by using flight magic. It was the very magic he had tried and failed to teach Odelia the day before.

The moment he realized that the direction he was heading in led to the blue-roofed manor, the Lure family’s villa.

“What is this…?”

Upon entering the rear garden of the blue-roofed manor, Cedrion found himself unable to move easily due to the dreadful aura the mansion was emitting.

Beneath the roof, dyed in a noble blue like the eastern sky at dusk—just as Odelia had described—stood a simple two-story mansion. But from it, an ominous energy thickly radiated. One of the mansion’s walls seemed distorted, as if its image was overlapping with another.

He roughly rubbed his eyes, but nothing changed.

At the same time, it was strange that there were no guards present, despite this being the residence of the royal family’s only heir and the Lure family’s daughter.

A noble family’s quaint and lovely country villa, its exterior impeccably quiet with not even a single ant in sight, and yet, an eerie aura gripped the boy’s heart with an unsettling force.

A sight that could only be perceived as terribly wrong.

Without hesitation, Cedrion rushed into the mansion. He forgot that he, hiding his identity as a Norhart, should not enter the Lure family’s villa without permission. He also failed to consider that the ominous energy could pose a threat to him.

The footsteps of the uninvited boy did not falter.

His destination was the northwest corner of the mansion, where the outer wall had appeared bizarrely distorted.

Along the corridor leading there, several knights clad in the royal guard’s armor lay collapsed. As if under a spell, they were deeply asleep.

And when Cedrion finally reached the source of that ghastly magic—

‘This bonnet… it belongs to Odelia…’

In front of the firmly shut door lay the bonnet Odelia wore every day.

‘No way… It’s nothing. It must be nothing…’

With an anxious heart and trembling hands, Cedrion picked up the bonnet and cautiously turned the doorknob.

Creak— The sound of the hinges echoed ominously.

Despite it being midday, the room was dim, its curtains tightly drawn. Within, a vortex of mana raged.

The room, seemingly a playroom, was filled with dolls, blocks, and books swirling in the mana turbulence.

And in the center of the room—

“O-Ode…!”

Odelia lay sprawled on the floor.

A magic circle, drawn in what looked like blood, flickered in resonance with the flow of mana. Odelia lay at its center.

Could it be… that blood…?

Her clothes were clean, indicating that it had not come from her. However, the wild storm of mana roared in his eardrums, and yet the child remained unconscious—something was clearly wrong.

Then, Cedrion’s golden eyes caught sight of a chicken, its neck twisted, lying discarded.

‘A magic circle drawn with chicken blood…’

Even as he desperately wanted to rush to Odelia, Cedrion hesitated, unable to identify the nature of the magic circle.

At that moment—

“Brother…?”

A child’s voice echoed near him.

Cedrion instinctively turned his head, only to see a boy standing right beside the entrance of the room.

A boy with a fair face, golden hair gleaming like melted gold, and large blue eyes shining brightly—just as Cedrion remembered him.

A beautiful child, who had grown as angelic as he had imagined.

Despite the surreal situation, the boy’s expression remained innocently calm.

And so—

“Was this your doing?”

“Is it really you, Brother? Though Norhart and Meldorf are close, this is quite the curious encounter.”

“What is that magic formula?”

“I was playing a fun game.”

“…A game?”

Cedrion’s brow furrowed.

“Could it be that the ‘priest game’ Ode mentioned…”

“Ode?”

The boy’s face brightened as if he had found an amusing toy.

“So Brother has grown quite close with the little Lure girl? But that girl is someone Father has his eye on.”