“Can you see that?”

At Adele’s question, the sorcerer shrugged his shoulders.

“I can’t feel anything from it at all.”

Both Adele and Vincent’s expressions shifted to ones of distrust. The sorcerer smiled pleasantly at their gazes without showing any sign of being offended.

“Everything that makes up this world follows a set of laws. I think Adele would understand what I mean.”

“Of course! Adele knows everything!”

Vincent puffed up with pride on Adele’s behalf. Inwardly pleased by her subordinate’s wholehearted trust, Adele said nothing.

She had a rough sense of what the sorcerer meant by the laws of the world. It was closely tied to the way she herself handled power.

In fact, she had already vaguely come to understand those laws herself. Drawing out the power within her body and borrowing the power of nature to unleash transcendent abilities.

That was precisely what the magic towers called mana, that strange energy.

‘Probably sorcerers deal more with that natural power, while people like me rely more heavily on the power within the body.’

As Adele made an expression of understanding, the sorcerer continued his explanation.

“But this marble has no properties whatsoever. It makes me wonder whether it even belongs to this world.”

Whether it belongs to this world.

Adele looked up at the sorcerer steadily. It was indeed not the kind of knowledge someone who had only ever lived inside a story would be expected to have.

A sorcerer who seemed to have an unusual amount of knowledge in strange directions. She could not exactly beat it all out of him. He would surely die.

It was at that moment that the ground beneath Adele’s feet gave way.

“A, Adele!”

“Adele!”

Both Vincent and the sorcerer reached out toward her.

“I told you to call me boss.”

Neither of their hands could reach Adele. As though something was blocking them.

Right before her eyes yet feeling absent. Adele thought it seemed as though the space had shifted.

It was exactly the same as what had happened a few days ago.

Unlike the composed Adele, the sorcerer’s pupils trembled at the strange phenomenon unfolding before his eyes.

He closed his eyes and murmured something, and his body began to glow with light. Regardless of that, Vincent still struggled desperately to grab Adele’s hand.

The sorcerer, having used some unknown magic, reached out again. But his hand passed straight through Adele.

“How is this possible!”

He muttered words that children probably should not hear.

Seeing the two of them making such efforts, Adele, knowing it was useless, tightened her fist out of habit. A stronger energy than usual, the kind she used when demolishing walls, gathered into her fist.

“Stand back.”

The sorcerer realized what Adele was about to do and immediately scooped Vincent up into his arms. Vincent struggled, but no matter how frail the sorcerer was, a child who had only been training for a week could not overpower an adult.

“Adele!”

“I said call me boss.”

Adele muttered that and then drove her fist forward with full force.

Along the path of that strike, a powerful wind strong enough to be mistaken for a typhoon surged upward. Several trees swayed and snapped, falling over.

The sound of something shattering rang out, as though whatever had been blocking her path had been broken through.

– – –

“Your Majesty, Lady Layla has arrived.”

“Ah, has it already come to that time.”

The king of the Kingdom of Pilonia, having received the welcome news, smiled warmly and looked toward the door.

Soon the firmly closed door opened, and a golden-haired child walked in holding her father’s hand.

At the sight of the child, whose beauty was even more doll-like than a doll itself, even all the servants standing guard in the study felt their expressions soften.

The child let go of her father’s hand, lightly gathered her skirt, bent her knees, and said.

“Layla greets the sun of the kingdom. I hope you have been well, Your Majesty?”

At the clear pronunciation, as though she had a pencil in her mouth, all the watching adults burst into laughter. Everyone looked as though they had been completely charmed by Layla’s adorableness.

Once Layla’s greeting was finished, the prince who had been sitting beside the king rose from his seat and walked toward her.

“Count, it is good to see you.”

“Yes. You grow more impressive with each passing day, Your Highness.”

“You flatter me.”

Rohide extended his arm toward the little lady, as though to escort her.

“I have heard that the two of you have important matters to attend to. We shall spend some time strolling through the garden together, so please speak freely.”

The count seemed moved by the thoughtful consideration of a child who had just turned ten and nodded his head. The king also smiled warmly at his son’s composed manner and the affection he showed in looking after his betrothed.

Rohide walked out of the room at a slow pace, matching Layla’s small steps.

“What a charming pair they make.”

“Just look at how considerate His Highness the Prince is. To have such a deep and caring heart.”

The two walked down the corridor under everyone’s watchful gaze.

At the sight of the beloved children who were adored by the entire kingdom, people watched on and offered warm words of their own.

Rohide and Layla, as though accustomed to such attention, smiled at each other and responded in kind. It was the ease of those who had been loved from the moment they were born.

It was a full thirty minutes after leaving the king’s study that the two finally reached the garden.

Upon arriving at the garden, the faint smile that had been resting on Rohide’s face vanished in an instant. With no trace of a gentle smile remaining, his expression hardened immediately, and Layla whispered.

“……Your Highness. There are still many eyes watching.”

“Is that so?”

Despite Layla’s concern, Rohide lowered the arm with which he had been escorting her.

Naturally, Layla’s arm lowered as well.

“The adults may be disappointed if they find out.”

“You always say that.”

At Rohide’s expression of utter weariness, Layla bit down hard on her lip. Tears welling up in the eyes of a wounded child was a matter of an instant.

“It makes me so sad that I have to spend my whole life with someone like you.”

“Why do you dislike me, Your Highness? My father and His Majesty the King both like me.”

Rohide did not answer Layla’s question.

If left alone, she would stop crying on her own.

It was something that had already happened countless times between Rohide and Layla. Rohide ignoring, and Layla crying.

He was bored. Was there nothing different or new to experience? His eyes were hollow in a way that was hard to believe belonged to a ten-year-old.

Just then, a wind swept through from the distant forest.

A gust…… though its force was far too strong to call it merely that.

He had heard that such strong winds had been sweeping through the capital frequently of late. It felt like something artificial, and he desperately wanted to go and see for himself, but that was impossible.

The prince was confined to the palace.

Rohide stared blankly at the wind blowing from afar and sank into thought once again.

That he wished to entrust his body to that wind.

– – –

The clearing after a typhoon-like gale had swept through.

There stood Adele, quietly staring at her small fist, and Vincent, who had fallen flat on his backside with a startled expression. And there lay the sorcerer, flat on the ground with every last bit of his strength spent from trying to hold back Vincent’s struggling.

Adele, standing alone upright, turned her head toward Vincent and the sorcerer with a complicated feeling. This marble that had appeared out of nowhere seemed to be connected to them in some way.

The timing of its appearance was not ordinary.

The marble had revealed itself the moment Vincent made his declaration that he would not leave for the enemy nation.

Vincent had shown behavior different from the future she knew. In the original course of events, he had not even finished the academy and had left this kingdom amid condemnation.

Now that the future had changed, what on earth was the identity of the marble that had appeared?

‘Originally, there were scenes contained inside these.’

But there were no scenes at all inside the marble that had appeared so suddenly. Adele felt that its empty interior was like her own opaque, uncertain future.

Could it be something that appeared when someone tried to change the original plot? As though the characters inside the story were living and breathing?

Adele scoffed at her own delusion.

A marble appearing to warn her not to tamper with the story, was that not the kind of suspicion only a simple-minded person would have? And if the story were being managed as she imagined, what reason would there be to have retreated after leaving a mere character like herself behind?

This world was still full of things she did not understand, but this situation was surely just a coincidence. It had probably just shown up out of boredom.

If a marble appeared again, she would just use the same spicy punch she had just demonstrated.

Adele reaffirmed her bold resolve and opened her fist, then clenched it tightly again.

Just moments ago, she had used a force far too great for her small body to handle. Yet she did not feel as though she was about to collapse.

‘On the contrary……’

Her energy was surging. As though something that had been blocked had burst wide open.

Using such great force had made her feel as though she had returned to her prime. Aura had manifested, just as it used to.

‘This uncontrollable power. I really feel like I could make the world my own.’

And so the world in the palm of her hand……

No, before that, she needed to turn the villain into a decent human being first.

Adele felt her chest swelling with the sensation of her newfound strength, and quickly brought herself back to calm. Keeping one’s heart well in check was also one of the important virtues of a knight.

At that moment, Vincent opened his mouth.

“A, Adele? Are you all right?”