Chapter 67

Ashton did seem to be in pain because of his illness, but in everyday life he functioned normally. No ordinary doctor or pharmacist would recommend magical medicine to someone like that. Ingesting and “digesting” another person’s magic carried a high chance of triggering various rejection responses in the body.

‘But it can’t be a magic-related illness, either….’

Because he was Letonan.

Magic-related illness was something only mages suffered.

But something unresolved was beginning to grow in Sabina’s chest. She could not entirely dismiss the possibility that he was someone who had crossed from Brinita to Letona.

Sabina covered the dish and went down to the underground storage.

It was filled with thousands of bottles of transparently glittering solution. This was the magical solvent in which Walter D’Vialis had stored his clone magic. It was an essential ingredient for making scrolls, and because it would only be consumed unless a new Clone Mage was born, its price rose every year. Sabina casually took one bottle of that expensive substance and returned to the laboratory.

She poured her grandfather’s magic into the dish.

The medicine—far too small in amount to run many experiments—slowly increased in volume. Because she had not diluted the clone-magic solvent, there was, in theory, no difference whatsoever between original and copy. Sabina divided the two medicines into four bottles each. She placed eight bottles up in the cabinet.

If it was magical medicine, finding its source would be easier, rather than harder. Because the maker would be limited to someone inside Brinita.

She returned her unused grandfather’s magic to the storage, and this time prepared to go out. During the travel period, she had adapted to dressing herself, to some degree.

Yesterday, the moment Ashton said, “It’s just a chronic condition, and it doesn’t hurt that much,” Sabina realized he would not speak in depth about his illness. But she wanted to know what kind of illness he suffered from. Somehow, she could not simply pass it by with indifference.

It was a good thing she had taken the medicine.

After putting on gloves and taking even her staff, she struck the staff’s tip against the floor with a sharp tap.

She was at a tavern. If she pushed open the filthy, grimy door slightly, the inside was loud and bustling, making night seem like a lie.

It was so noisy inside that only the shop owner noticed a customer had arrived. He was about to bellow out a hearty welcome, but when he recognized the face of the one who entered, he shut his mouth.

Sabina calmly sat on a tall barstool and set her staff across her lap.

“Hello.”

“What brings you to a place like this, Miss D’Vialis?”

“I didn’t come to drink. But I did come to give you money.”

The manager’s eyes narrowed. He only continued polishing a glittering glass, sneaking glances at Sabina.

“For what?”

“I’m looking for a pharmacist who trades magical medicine outside Brinita.”

“What? Asking the royal family would be faster. You’re not just anyone—you’re a D’Vialis.”

“But if I ask the royal family, the royal line will find out I’m looking for such a person. And it’ll be difficult to cover even those who are doing it illegally, in secret.”

The manager looked as though he couldn’t believe someone as rigid as Sabina would do something she wanted to hide from the royal family. Sabina, of course, was not someone who would feel ashamed at such a roundabout rebuke.

“This is an advance payment.”

As if it were nothing, Sabina held out five gold coins. Even that alone would more than fill a tavern’s monthly income. The owner sighed, but quickly took the coins and hid them under the bar.

“One week. Depending on how high-quality the information you bring is, the amount I pay you on that day will change.”

It was obvious even without saying. The owner nodded.

“I want you to organize as clearly as possible who the pharmacists are who sell magical medicine overseas, and even what kinds of medicine they handle. And of course, you know it’s better not to expose the name Sabina D’Vialis.”

“I understand.”

“If I end up having to go to the royal family and clean up after this, your earnings won’t be much fun, either.”

Sabina said that much and stood. It wasn’t good to sit there long.

“Then I’ll look forward to it. In a week, will you close the shop for one day? I don’t want to talk again in a noisy place like this.”

The owner was left speechless at Sabina’s high-handed attitude. He stared at her blankly, and she added, as if she had suddenly remembered she had forgotten to say it.

“Of course, I’ll compensate that day’s income. You can think of it as me renting this entire place. Then, I’ll be counting on you.”

The next moment, Sabina vanished from before his eyes. The owner hurriedly checked beneath the bar.

Five gold coins shone there as proof that Miss D’Vialis had indeed come.

* * *

The three roommates had long been asleep, but Helio still couldn’t fall asleep even as the night deepened toward dawn.

He wrapped a heatless lamp in a towel, relying on the dimmed light, and read Sabina’s letter again and again.

She was apologizing for having spoken thoughtlessly. Because she hadn’t slept properly the night before, she had taken Helio’s words too sharply.

Even if she had returned home, her fatigue wouldn’t have disappeared right away, yet Sabina’s sentences were neat. Helio felt distance, instead, in that flawless letter. She was trying not to show him even the slightest vulnerability.

Because he was someone under her protection.

That was likely why she had yielded so quickly and so clearly, too. This was Sabina letting him have it. Because Helio was a minor, and she was an adult. If the two of them had fought from equal positions, the situation would have been very different from now.

Helio was sad.

If someone asked who he liked most in the world, it was of course Sabina. Sabina was his everything. Even being close with Reyes was for Sabina’s sake. So he wanted to become the person closest to her.

But to Sabina, he was not that kind of person.

Helio knew, to overflowing, that Sabina cared for him. She was, by nature, calmly kind, but she became very soft toward those she cherished, and like a sheer cliff of blades toward those outside the line. And Helio enjoyed many privileges.

But the final line that could not be crossed was far too clearly visible.

‘Does my master… think that I’m trying to control her?’

That, at least, was absolutely not the case. How could a boy do something so presumptuous. He only wanted to keep her in place because she looked far too precarious, walking into danger that was plainly visible.

No, was that what possessiveness was?

‘To her—right now, she looks like that man matters more to her than I do.’

If he had been more precious to her than that man was, maybe she wouldn’t have reacted so sharply. No—before that, the moment Helio had already felt uncomfortable about that man, perhaps she would have cut ties.

By the time his thoughts reached that point, Helio came to hate himself.

His relationship with Reyes was far less aboveboard than Sabina’s relationship with Ashton.

But then, from the very bottom of his chest, a monster that kept whispering “No, but…” raised its head.

‘Isn’t that only because the Master is the one holding the reins of that relationship? If you were the one with the upper hand, would you be hiding your meetings with His Highness the King’s brother and worrying yourself sick like this?’

The dark, clammy part of Helio insisted loudly that the voice was right. At the same time, suspicion grew in one corner of his chest—was there truly a wall of control inside him?

Once it reached that point, the countless proofs of affection Sabina had shown Helio became endlessly worthless, or hid themselves away somewhere, and only the hurtful things she had done kept resurfacing. The boy could no longer even remember the time he had received the watch from Sabina.

It hurt.

He lay with his face down on his desk, and after some time he staggered up, turned off the lamp, and climbed into bed. He no longer wanted to be the only one carrying a secret he couldn’t bear, with a Seal on his mouth, fretting and worrying at every turn.

Sabina had said she wanted to hear first the reason Helio hated Ashton.

If she wanted to know the reason, he could tell her.

To undo the Seal.