“No.”

Classid answered while lost in thought. His gaze fell on the crescent moon brooch attached to Liria’s dress collar.

“I see you’re using the brooch well.”

“Ah, I’m sorry for borrowing it without permission.”

Classid shook his head.

“It was meant for you in the first place… it’s yours. Besides assisting with magical power, it also has the power to protect you.”

“…Really?”

Grandmother hadn’t mentioned that.

In fact, without this brooch, Classid might have been suspicious of Liria’s suddenly increased mana.

Classid had a mana heart with exceptional mana detection ability compared to others.

He could sense another’s mana just by being next to them, without any magical tools.

‘He might be sensing my mana.’

As Liria suspected, Classid was already sensing the enormous blue rippling mana.

“Your mana has grown tremendously in a short time. Could it be related to your manifestation of the metal attribute?”

“Y-yes, I think so. I trained my mana diligently while Father was away. And this brooch seems to suit me well.”

Liria evaded the question, but Classid thought to himself.

‘Her mana seems to have increased several times, no, at least ten times more than before…’

As far as he knew, there were two cases where one could gain strong mana after manifesting power.

When contracting with a spirit

When manifesting magic of a higher attribute

If it was the key, it belonged to the higher attributes as a metal attribute.

But Liria’s mana had increased in such a short time that it couldn’t be explained merely by higher attributes or training.

It seemed much larger than that of an average mid-level magician.

At this point, he became curious about how amazing Liria’s key power was.

She said it was the power to summon keys. Classid’s metal attribute had the power to freely manipulate steel.

However, Liria’s power seemed quite different in form and nature.

Summoning the metal key itself.

If any magical power resided in the key, it would undoubtedly be a power with infinite possibilities.

It was fundamentally different from his own power of controlling steel.

‘…It must be a higher-level power.’

Classid speculated while lazily resting his chin on his hand.

‘…Wait, if that’s the case, I should put tracking Serna on hold.’

Meanwhile, Liria kept her mouth tightly shut, almost afraid of being caught that her metal attribute was false.

If it was Classid who actually handled metal magic, he might quickly notice that Liria’s power wasn’t magic.

“Liria, I have a request. Your power…”

“Yaaawn, I’m so sleepy. Liria needs to go to dreamland now.”

Having been out until past midnight, Classid fortunately let it go.

“Yes, go to bed now.”

“Ah, by the way, Father.”

“Hmm?”

“Those letters, if they bother you, I won’t send them anymore.”

“They don’t bother me.”

“…? Really?”

“It’s late. Go to sleep.”

Classid cast a transparent spell over Liria’s head.

Soon, a cold sensation began to envelop her cheeks and entire body.

“…Huh?”

Then her body was enclosed in cold water droplets, floated up, and swooshed all the way to the second-floor terrace of the annex.

The water droplet flew through the automatically opened window and plopped Liria down on the bed.

“Waah, what, what is this?”

Click.

The window closed, and Classid, whose head had been barely visible, was now completely out of sight.

***

Two days later.

It was the day she had promised to meet Noah again.

After parting like that, Liria was worried about what might have happened to Noah.

She couldn’t concentrate during her succession lessons.

Judging by that terrifying man’s demeanor, he wouldn’t have left Noah alone.

Those wounds she had seen on Noah, she was going to heal them. She regretted not being able to do so before returning.

“Kiki?”

Liria approached a small, round object under the bed and called out.

It was a cave-shaped bed specially made for Kiki, who liked dark caves.

“Tsk.”

Kiki, who had been sleeping while smacking his lips, got up drowsily with half-open eyes.

“Let’s go see Noah quickly. I shouldn’t have let him go alone like that.”

Tap tap tap.

Pitter-patter.

With Kiki leading the way, she hurried, but even after the appointed time had long passed, Noah did not appear.

Sitting under the tree’s shade with her knees pulled up, Liria unconsciously looked up.

It was already approaching dusk.

“He said there was a cabin just over the hill. Let’s go, Kiki!”

However, after a long journey, what awaited them was an empty cabin.

All the household items were trampled and in disarray.

Her heart sank.

“…What is this? What happened?”

There was no sign of life inside the shabby cabin.

After looking around for traces of Noah, she found what appeared to be his room—a log house on top of a tree.

“There’s no ladder.”

Just in case, Liria struggled to climb the tree.

There, she found a boat made of branches, shiny pebbles, an old wooden sword, and various odds and ends that seemed to have been collected from here and there.

And.

In the straw pile on the floor, she discovered something familiar.

It was the ribbon-decorated basket that Liria had used to deliver items.

Inside the basket were all of Liria’s notes that she had written to Noah, not a single one missing.

Seeing that made her heart ache.

“Silly. You kept all of these?”

Before she knew it, transparent tears rolled down from Liria’s eyes.

If she had known this would happen, she would have visited more often.

No, she should have held his hand that day and never let go.

He was her first friend outside the Roberg family.

Not knowing where he had been taken or what had happened to him was agonizing.

‘Please be safe until I find you…!’

Liria picked up the basket along with the remaining items.

With a heavy heart looking at the simple belongings, Liria wiped her tears with the back of her hand and said to Kiki.

“Kiki, can you look for anything else?”

“Beep beep!”

Kiki nodded and began to sniff around, thoroughly searching the room.

Stopping at a corner of the wooden floor, Kiki gestured to Liria.

“Huh? What’s there? The color is darker than the rest of the floor.”

Liria tapped the floor with her tiny cotton fist and then gently rolled her foot over it.

Thump thump.

Unlike the other parts of the floor that made a hollow sound, this made an empty sound.

Looking closely, there was a plank roughly fastened with wooden screws.

Curious, the two struggled to turn the wooden screws and finally removed the plank.

There lay a worn but elegant hardcover diary.

Liria opened the diary.

All the pages at the front had been torn out.

The content of the first entry was disturbing.

[XX Month XX Day

My head hurt terribly.

As if it was shattered into pieces.

When I regained consciousness, a rough-looking man was looking down at me.

He said he was my uncle.

He said he had picked me up and raised me after I was abandoned as a baby.

He said my name was Noah.

Why does my own name feel so awkward and unfamiliar?

Strange.

Why are there no memories in my head?

I don’t remember who I am or where I came from.

Who am I?]

“…No memories?”

Liria was surprised, her eyes widening.

Noah’s handwriting, whom she had thought was a commoner, was exceptionally elegant.

Even more so than most nobles.

Liria quickly turned to the next page.