“Baron Selverdin.”
Liri replied calmly.
“Meaning… my father.”
She explained again.
So the Baron of Selverdin turned his own daughter into a rabbit?
“No matter how shameless my father is, I don’t think he did it on purpose. I don’t know whether it was meant for something else or if it was taken by mistake, but I accidentally drank the medicine he brought.”
Cassium searched through his memory.
Had he ever eaten something prepared by Baron Selverdin?
“……”
Ah.
There was.
At the late-winter party hosted by the Imperial Family.
Back then, the Selverdin House had been in charge of preparing the drinks.
Even someone as sensitive to poison as he was hadn’t immediately realized something black-magic infused was mixed in.
If it had been blended into strong alcohol while he was already drunk, it made sense.
“Wait, Liri. How old are you?”
“Fifteen.”
“You drank alcohol?”
“No, it wasn’t like I meant to drink it. I mean… I just drank it without knowing. That kind of thing can happen once, right?”
While explaining, Liri suddenly raised her voice.
“And that one time is exactly why I’m a rabbit now.”
“That’s true.”
Liri shrugged.
What a laid-back rabbit.
But thanks to this relaxed rabbit, he had gained something valuable.
“Liri.”
“Yes?”
“You’ll probably start turning back gradually soon.”
“Really?”
“You’ll shift back into a human from time to time, and those intervals will get shorter. Eventually, you’ll fully return to normal.”
Since he had obtained important information from her, Cassium also gave her important information in return.
“Oh? I thought staying like this wasn’t too bad, though.”
“You were just saying you’d marry that kid earlier.”
“We’re still years away from marriage age anyway.”
Yes, they were only in their mid-teens—too early to talk about marriage.
On the other hand, he was already at an age where marriage wouldn’t be strange.
“Marriage…”
“Do you have someone you want to marry?”
“Do—don’t, I mean… yes, no, yes…”
“So is that a yes or a no?”
“Yes.”
“Eeeh! Who is it?”
Cassium turned his head away without answering.
His ears felt strangely hot, so he curled them up tightly.
“It’s not something that can happen right away. I’m not going to force it if the other person doesn’t want it either. Whether a marriage proposal is accepted is up to her…”
“Eee! You even brought up a proposal? That escalated fast.”
Cassium curled his reddening ears even tighter and blurted out things he hadn’t intended to say.
He knew words couldn’t be taken back, yet he didn’t know why he kept going.
Maybe Rize would refuse his proposal. She had already said she disliked him that day.
But still, just in case—just in case that wasn’t her true feeling.
If Rize accepted marriage with him…
“When will you find a new man, big sis?”
At that moment, he heard little Bryce muttering.
A new man?
Cassium’s curled-up ears immediately straightened.
He looked at Bryce, ears perked up.
“It would’ve been nice to have an older brother in the ducal family, but of course, it’s my sister’s choice that matters most.”
Cassium’s golden eyes wavered.
“Yes, that ‘older brother’ apparently is super handsome. But they say there’s no meat at a feast you only hear about—it probably isn’t true in real life either.”
“That’s not true!”
Cassium shouted reflexively, but Bryce only heard a faint “beeeep” sound.
Still, sensing it was directed at him, Bryce paused and looked over indifferently.
“Should I trim your claws now?”
It seemed Bryce still couldn’t understand Cassium’s words.
At that moment, Cassium felt a gaze from the side.
Liri was looking at him and shaking her head.
“Is it you?”
“What?”
“The ‘super handsome guy’—is that you in reality?”
“……”
“So it is you.”
Cassium was too shocked by the thought that Rize might have already rejected his marriage proposal to care about what the rabbit was muttering.
Bryce spoke again.
“Still not trimming them?”
Cassium abruptly turned his head away.
‘No… she hasn’t clearly said she’s rejected the proposal yet.’
As he thought that, Bryce put down the nail clippers he had been holding and opened a book instead.
“If she really did reject it, I wonder how House Valteir will respond.”
“……”
“They better not bully our sister just because she said no.”
Little Bryce did not give him even a chance to entertain hope.
He drove the final nail in.
Cassium tried curling his ears again to block out the sound, but Bryce’s voice kept coming through.
Feeling as though all strength was draining from his body, Cassium stared out the distant window.
The long sword in his right hand sliced through the air.
With the sunset behind him, he cut through the mist with several swings before exhaling heavily.
‘Still not working.’
It had been a few days since he dreamed of his academy days.
The same day Cassium said he had awakened aura—and said he would no longer meet the Marquis young lady…
No, that had nothing to do with my training right now.
‘It’s always like this. Even something trivial gets tangled up with Cassium and everything becomes complicated.’
That’s why I didn’t like being involved with him.
Even that day.
If someone accomplished something as big as awakening aura, it should have been enough to simply congratulate him. If someone else had told me, I would have done just that.
But when Cassium said it, other things—like what I thought when I saw him, and what he had said to me—kept interfering, and I couldn’t focus on the words alone.
Things completely unrelated to aura, like the Marquis young lady, or the fact that he suddenly appeared on paths he rarely used… all of it made thinking and judging difficult.
It was irritating.
Not just that. Even when doing something completely unrelated, Cassium would suddenly pop into my mind and scratch at my temper.
‘Where did he go. He should just show up already.’
Even now, those thoughts intruded again.
So distracting.
“Phew.”
I should just keep training.
I was practicing how to manifest aura.
The same aura Cassium had said he manifested in that dream.
I closed my eyes and focused on the sword in my hand, concentrating all my energy at the blade’s edge where it met the air.
According to an article in the Knightly Journal The Way of Knighthood, written by Lady Olimia Cetrin, an aura user, aura is formed when the wielder’s energy meets the elements in the air.
“Aura is created when the strong energy of the sword’s wielder materializes the elemental forces in the air and is infused into the blade.”
That was what it said.
It was easy to say, but understanding it took years.
Still, over time, I gradually came to understand what it meant.
As I became accustomed to the sword and it felt like an extension of my body, I learned how even a light motion could create a large ripple.
As someone who used a sword, I naturally learned how to channel my energy to its tip.
So the first stage of aura was already mastered.
‘But the next step is the problem.’
No matter how much energy I gathered, it didn’t interact with the elements in the air.
‘It’s the same again. The elements gather, but then scatter.’
I could clearly feel the point where the elements began to respond to the sword’s energy.
A faint wind stirred around me, gathering toward the blade.
Beyond that wind, it felt like something was about to glow.
But even after half a year, I couldn’t go beyond that point.
‘Something is interfering.’
Some unknown force was preventing the elements from gathering properly.
‘Next time I should ask Cassium again how it’s supposed to—right, Cassium isn’t here.’
My concentration broke instantly.
Again.
He did it again.
Cassium ruined my focus again.
“Seriously.”
I swung the sword repeatedly, muttering in frustration.
‘Should I call it a day?’
I looked up at the sky dyed red by the sunset.
It was a full-moon night.
I should go to Bryce’s room, pick up the golden rabbit, and return to my room.
Then I would tightly draw the curtains and hide under the blankets all night.
That way I wouldn’t suffer like last time.
‘Let’s hurry.’
Just then, the signal device at the far end of the training ground rang.
‘Who is it?’
I quickly walked over.
The signal device displayed who had contacted me.
‘Captain Denver?’
What is the Captain doing here?
