Chapter 73

Only a moment later did Sabina realize what she had said. She covered her own cheeks with both hands.

“Wow—so even ‘a major felony isn’t a big deal’ comes out of Sabina D’Vialis’s mouth now? Of course, I’m the kind of person who thinks the world gets richer when there are brave souls like that. Anyway, that was a fun remark.”

Sabina’s face reddened slightly.

“Could you pretend you didn’t hear it?”

“Of course I’ll pretend I didn’t hear it. We’re ‘friends,’ aren’t we? Friends—next time there’s something interesting, you have to bring it to me.”

Sabina swept everything Hannah had given her into her bag and left the Royal Research Institute. As she walked briskly, she kept thinking about unregistered attribute mages.

‘Why is she thinking like this?’

No matter how she thought about it, the existence of unregistered mages didn’t seem strange at all, nor did it seem important. Emotionally, that was how it felt. But at school, she had been taught until her ears ached that unregistered attribute mages were something that must not exist.

‘Why is she thinking like this, really?’

Sabina was the sort who obeyed what she learned. As a dangerous-attribute mage, she had faithfully followed what she learned at school until now. She had properly internalized the ideology passed down through Certanon Academy’s long history. She was stubborn and had a rebellious streak, but when it came to issues of safety and social maintenance, she had always held conservative positions.

Yet no matter how she thought about it, the existence of an unregistered attribute mage did not feel like a tremendous problem.

‘Why?’

With a confused mind, Sabina returned home.

Standing before the front gate, she was instantly struck with even more complicated feelings.

The cause that had led her to seek out Hannah—Ashton—was waiting for her, hands shoved into his pockets. Seeing Sabina step down from the carriage, he smiled gently.

“Where have you been?”

Sabina was at a loss for words.

“……To Helio?”

Ashton asked as if gauging Sabina’s mood. He bent at the waist and carefully inspected Sabina’s face. That face, which didn’t show expression easily unless one looked closely.

Countless questions floated in her mind, but they did not connect into one clear truth.

‘Maybe I don’t want to know.’

Because she just wanted to maintain the present state.

Sabina shook her head.

“No. To a friend.”

“A friend?”

He sounded as though it was strange that Sabina had friends.

“……An Academy classmate. Miss Hannah. A mage at the Royal Research Institute.”

“Ah. What for?”

Sabina’s eyelashes trembled.

“Just.”

Her insides were easy to read even without magic. Ashton looked down at Sabina silently. She clearly looked as though she wanted to hide something. He did not press her. He also did not read her mind.

If it were summer, he would have read her without hesitation. In fact, when he returned to Brinita and first met Sabina, he read her memories repeatedly. What her relationship with Reyes was, how she had been living. But the deeper his emotions grew, the more he hesitated, instead, to read the other person.

The end was slowly drawing near. Perhaps he would have to disappear sooner than planned. So just a little longer, as her lover.

“I just came by too.”

Ashton smiled.

In truth, he hadn’t “just” come by. He had told Helio to send the report card, and by now Sabina would have checked it, so he had come to see whether her mood had improved.

Pressing her brow, Sabina asked.

“Why are you standing outside instead of going in?”

“You weren’t here, so I thought I’d wait.”

“Even so, if you want, you can wait inside. Mitchell…… likes you.”

“I was going to go home after seeing you go in. I don’t have much time either.”

“Why? Busy?”

Sabina asked in a whisper. Ashton tilted his head.

“Mm, kind of. I’ve got a lot going on.”

“You said you’ve been going to fewer salons lately.”

“That’s right. I don’t have to struggle like that anymore, now.”

“And you’re still busy?”

It meant: hurry and say you’re not busy, and go in together.

Sabina’s temptation was so sweet it was almost unbelievable. If Sabina wanted to spend time with him, Ashton wanted it just as much. But today he couldn’t. He hadn’t brought his medicine, and today he could already see the signs of pain approaching.

He did not know that, inside Sabina’s handbag, there were medicines identical to the ones he drank.

“Sorry. See you tomorrow.”

Ashton whispered, then slowly drew her hand in. In truth, “wanting to check her mood” was an excuse. He could have simply asked Mitchell. He thought that perhaps he had waited just for the thirty seconds of this kiss they were sharing.

Sabina, now accustomed to the sensations Ashton offered, grasped his muffler and pulled him in. She let go of the staff she had been holding, but she didn’t pick it back up.

What mattered more was the kiss with this person she wouldn’t be able to see more of today.

Sabina thought she would pretend not to know, no matter what sin he had committed.

It was precisely the opposite of what Ashton wanted.

***

The next day, a guest arrived.

Hearing only that “a guest has come,” Sabina naturally assumed it was Ashton. She was about to go down with only her hair tidied. But Vicky stopped her, wearing an awkward expression.

“Um, it isn’t Lord Bryant. It’s someone else.”

“Who?”

Sabina asked, looking somewhat disappointed. No matter how she thought about it, there wasn’t anyone who would come to visit. If anyone did, she expected it would be Hannah.

“It’s Mr. Edmund Carlton. The editor-in-chief of ‘Today, Reedblon.’”

‘Today, Reedblon’ was Brinita’s most influential daily newspaper.

At the name Edmund Carlton, Sabina felt an “ah.”

She had met Edmund Carlton around this time last year. With great difficulty, he had come to find Sabina and asked whether she could face the pain of losing her grandfather.

「Next year, I truly hope you will give us a memoir, Miss D’Vialis.」

Sabina had accepted, thinking it was also a way to remember her grandfather. Edmund seemed to have come to ask whether that promise was still valid.

She composed herself neatly and headed to the parlor.

Edmund was a gentleman with a trustworthy face, dressed in a crisp suit. A friend of Walter’s, he was one of the people who had seen Sabina since she was very young. Sabina liked him fairly well. It was because he always used honorifics even to young Sabina, and treated her respectfully.

“Good day.”

His moustache had become flecked with white, too. Rarely, Sabina spread her skirt and bowed softly.

“It’s been a long time, Mr. Carlton.”

Edmund stared at Sabina with a slightly moved expression.

“You truly have become an adult.”

“I became an adult three years ago already.”

“That isn’t what I mean. I heard you have taken someone under your responsibility.”

It was about Helio. Sabina hesitated, then nodded.

“I’m not exactly an excellent guardian, though.”

“Haha, Walter always said things like that as well. But Walter raised both his son and his granddaughter wonderfully.”

Walter’s words had surely been modesty, but what Sabina said was sincere. Still, Edmund wouldn’t take such words at face value.

Edmund gave a light clap.

“Now, then……. Do you remember why I’ve come to visit like this?”

“I know. You need my grandfather’s memoir.”

“I need a manuscript of one thousand words. I very much wanted to carry your writing, Miss D’Vialis.”

The most attention-grabbing timing would have been right after Walter’s death. But Edmund had waited until Sabina could endure facing the sorrow of losing Walter. Sabina nodded slightly.

“But I don’t know what to write.”

“Write who Walter was. It will be a fine piece.”

Talking with someone who knew Walter was a sad kind of joy. Over a cup of tea and countless stories, the two warmed their chilled memories. As the conversation went on, Edmund’s eyes had grown moist without him realizing.

Looking up at the ceiling as if to keep from shedding tears, he then smiled brightly.

“Ah, we ought to be talking about recent times rather than old stories. Come to think of it, didn’t you run an advertisement with us once, Miss D’Vialis?”

It was the contract-lover notice. Sabina nodded.

“At first, I thought it was a joke. I thought you would…….”

Before the words came out that, after all the twists and turns, he had thought she would end up with Reyes, Sabina swiftly cut off Edmund’s sentence.