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Chapter Three: The Lord of Magic’s Past
“Well, that’s a surprise,” Spellmaster Clartes whispered.
Aides nodded. “I know, right? I hadn’t been expecting this either.”
On that day, Clartes had come to see Aides and Wellmy. The main reason for his visit had been to sign the papers officially recognizing Wellmy as his biological daughter, but the lord of magic had invited him to stay for lunch, and the three of them were presently eating together.
As for what had the men so surprised, it was Wellmy’s manners.
“I always thought that your curtsies looked beautiful, but how in the world did you manage to master high society etiquette in such a short time?” Clartes asked.
Ẅ е́b́_nо̄v̌ёl̃ Е ǹu m̊ а̂
A month and a half had passed since Wellmy started studying for her future role as the Marchioness of Ormirage, and Aides had given her passing marks in nearly all subjects.
She smiled sweetly at her father. “When my sister and I were young, we had the honor of being educated by Countess Collwella Dresta.”
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Clartes’s jaw dropped. “Lady Collwella? The woman who was in charge of the queen’s education...?”
“Indeed.”
The title of Countess of Dresta wasn’t hereditary—each generation, the royal family granted it to an outstanding woman. Lady Collwella was single, but the queen had bestowed her that title as a reward for her achievements as a noble lady and instructor.
Wellmy herself hadn’t known about her private tutor’s past achievements until Iora’s visit the other day, when Wellmy had brought up that her current teachers never yelled or seemed annoyed with her. While her grades at the noble academy had been toward the top of her class, she had always assumed that it had only been thanks to Iora writing her papers.
Е̄_ǹ.ŭ m а̂
But Iora had shaken her head when she’d told her this. “Papers aren’t the only thing we were graded on, Wellmy. You have never struggled much with etiquette, writing, or magic, have you?”
“Now that you mention it, I have always been pretty comfortable in those subjects. But I simply assumed that it was the same for everyone. Well, save for the stupid girls I’d deliberately surrounded myself with back then.”
“Wellmy...” Iora had offered her a weak smile and continued, “our private teacher, Lady Collwella, was a brilliant lady.”
Wellmy offered Iora’s explanation to Clartes. “Iora’s mother was close to Lady Collwella. That is why she agreed to work for the Ernests.”
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In truth, their private teacher had been supposed to be in charge of Iora’s education, not Wellmy’s. However, most people didn’t know what went on within a noble house unless they deliberately chose to look into it. As Lady Collwella had promised the deceased Lady Ernest to handle her daughter’s education when she became old enough, she had applied to Savarin’s job offer, in spite of the absurdly low pay. While she knew that he had remarried and had a second daughter, she’d had no idea that Wellmy was the same age as Iora.
She had sent the Ernests a letter stating that she wished to educate the future Countess of Ernest, and Savarin had assigned her as Wellmy’s private tutor. Iora had already been sent to live in the detached building by then.
W е b n̄ о̃ v̇ е̌l̂ Е̊n̄ū m а
Even though Lady Collwella and Iora’s mother had been friends, the former had been busy educating royalty and noble ladies, and the latter had been too frail to attend tea parties. As a result, Lady Collwella had never met Iora.
“She had many questions,” Wellmy explained. “Not about my grades, but my heritage, because I didn’t have either Savarin’s or Iora’s mother’s eye color, and I didn’t look like them in the slightest.”
Wellmy’s features naturally looked like a mix of her real parents’—Clartes and Isabella.
“I see. What happened then?” Clartes asked.
“Lady Collwella gave my sister and me the same education she gave to Her Majesty.”
“There is no such thing as too well-mannered or too intelligent,” she would often tell them.
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Wellmy surmised that she must’ve wanted for Iora, despite having lost her mother, to have such a good education that no one would bully her.
“She was strict, of course. At first, she was only my private tutor, but I figured that she would give Iora just as good an education as she had given me, so I had my mother ‘relegate’ her to the detached building.”
“And how old were you when you came up with that idea?” Clartes asked, his cheek twitching.
Wellmy soundlessly picked up her cup of black tea and offered him a beautiful smile. “Twelve.”
“Don’t look that shocked, Clartes. Of course Wellmy was capable of that much,” Aides said with an amused smirk.
After a long discussion with Iora, Lady Collwella had eventually learned the truth about the Ernests.
W̃ е́b̌ n̊о v el̊ Е́ n̆ u m̄ a
“She was clearly furious about the way Savarin and my mother treated Iora, but she never voiced it. Instead, she focused on giving my sister the best possible education. It is thanks to her that Iora’s manners are impeccable.”
In the end, Iora’s grace was what had caught Leo’s eye. Lady Collwella’s education had turned out to be a blessing.
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Needless to say, Wellmy had been delighted that she hadn’t made a mistake by entrusting Iora to her.
“‘Of course, Wellmy was capable of that much,’ huh?” Clartes repeated Aides’s earlier words, a strained smile curling on his lips. “With your talent for reading people, if you considered Lady Collwella a good person, it’s only natural she proved to be one.”
Aides soon had to return to his duties. He excused himself, and Wellmy and Clartes headed to the drawing room to finish filling out the paperwork acknowledging their blood ties.
“Once I submit this, you’ll be formally recognized as my daughter.”
W е b nо̆ v̊е̌l É ṅŭḿа̌
“Thank you kindly, father,” Wellmy said.
It still made her a little bashful to address him that way, but he had looked so happy the first time that she had called him “father” that she had decided to commit to it.
“You’re very welcome.”
Clartes paused, then turned back to his daughter. “Wellmy... Aides is like a younger brother to me. I couldn’t be happier that the two of you are engaged.”
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Wellmy nodded with a blush, and Clartes flashed her a grin. But then, his expression shifted into seriousness.
“I know Aides will never tell you about his past himself, but I want you to try to understand him,” he said in his soft, pleasant voice, the same one he had used when teaching her disenchanting. “Did you hear that the Attorney General has decided on the Ernests’ and Arvine’s punishments?”
Ên u m̃ а
Wellmy nodded. “My former father will be hanged, and my mother will be stripped of everything except for her peerage and sent to a remote convent.”
Savarin’s sentence seemed perfectly reasonable to Wellmy. Not only had he broken the crown’s trust, but he had also tried to murder his niece—his legitimate heir.
As for her mother’s punishment... Wellmy didn’t know what to think about it. Sending her to a convent felt cruel. Then again, had the king chosen to strip Isabella of her noble title, she likely still would have been exiled from the royal capital and sent to live in the countryside. For a woman her age, that would have been just as harsh as life in a convent.
“Indeed. I’m the one who asked the crown to let her keep her peerage. After all, I once loved her,” Clartes said sadly, a faraway look in his eyes.
Wellmy didn’t know what to say to that.
“My mother has always been nice to me, and to the servants as well,” she eventually muttered.
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“I see.”
Wellmy’s mother had always treated her daughter well—scolding her when necessary and praising her when deserved. The way she had treated Iora had been completely out of character.
Perhaps the reason the servants (save for Orea and Gordley) had treated Iora so badly had stemmed from the love they’d had for their mistress.
Wellmy’s mother had grown up in an orphanage and had always absolutely loathed being poor. The splurging habits she had developed after marrying Savarin were likely a product of her difficult childhood.
“Wellmy, you should wear something nice. We don’t have to worry about money, so just go buy yourself a lot of pretty things, all right?” her mother would often tell her.
She very clearly hadn’t wanted her daughter to live in poverty. Perhaps this was why she had hated Iora, as she had been born a noble and pampered her entire childhood.
Еn um̊ ӑ
Still, Wellmy had no compassion for her mother.
Regardless of the reason, the fact of the matter was that she had mistreated Wellmy’s beloved sister. At some point, Wellmy had started thinking of Iora as her only family.
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“As for Arvine, he only received a fine, did he not?” she asked.
“He did. His Highness mentioned he wouldn’t punish him too harshly for his disrespect. While the law states that you can’t be penalized since you submitted proof of your family’s wrongdoings, the crown couldn’t exile or execute Arvine while you remained untouched. That would only fuel nasty rumors. Besides, it doesn’t seem like House Schneiger did anything wrong. Their second son may not be the brightest, but the current Count Schneiger and his heir seem like brilliant men,” Clartes said with an awkward smile.
Wellmy blinked in surprise. Although he hadn’t said anything outrageous, it was her first time hearing him talk badly of someone. He always chose his words carefully, even when talking about her mother, the woman who betrayed him.
“You’re rather harsh on Arvine,” she remarked.
Е_n̂ um̄а
“Well, he’s the main cause of the suffering my daughter and her beloved sister had to endure. Although I suppose the same could be said of Isabella... But a young woman like you must have been more affected by that man’s unwanted physical contact than by any gossip, jeers, or criminal acts happening in the background that you were unaware of, right?”
This time, Wellmy was the one who gave him an awkward smile. “I willingly gave myself to him.”
“Still, if I had known about your situation earlier, I would have revealed my identity to you. I could have protected you.”
“You did nothing wrong, father. Please don’t worry about it. Besides, even if you had offered me your help, I would have refused. You didn’t have a plan to rescue Iora, after all.”
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Ultimately, there had been only one way to save both Wellmy and Iora. Although the two sisters, Leo, Clartes, and everyone else had been connected in some way, the picture had only been completed when Wellmy had sent that letter to Aides.
Clartes still wasn’t satisfied with that explanation, but he chose to move the conversation forward. “I don’t know what the Schneigers will choose to do with Arvine, but I don’t think that you need to worry. Aides went to see him and added a rather harsh caveat to his punishment. He likely won’t bother you or Iora again.”
Ŵ ё b̄n о̄v̀ е.l̄ Ѐn̂ ù m̌ ä
“Knowing him, he likely won’t attend any parties or balls moving forward. He’s far too proud for that.”
Arvine would hate nothing more than for others to mock and gossip about him behind his back.
Not that Wellmy cared about his feelings. She was more curious about the “caveat” Aides had imposed on him. Setting aside what she’d said at Aides’s engagement party, she actually didn’t wish for Arvine to receive too harsh a punishment, and she had told her fiancé as much.
However, it didn’t seem that Clartes would be elaborating on that point, as he changed the topic once again. “Wellmy, I would like to tell you a little about Aides, since I know he’ll never do so himself. Will you listen?”
Wellmy peered into her father’s eyes. The gentle warmth she was accustomed to had been replaced by a profound sadness.
“Are you about to reveal his deepest secret to me?” she asked.
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“Perhaps. But it’s not his weakness—at least, not in his eyes.”
“Oh, what a shame. But still, I would like to know,” Wellmy said, straightening her spine as she prepared to listen.
Clartes offered her a smile and began his tale.
※※※
“Wellmy, you know that Aides is extremely strict about the regulations surrounding magic items. His obsession is what pushed him to ascend the ranks and become the head of the Ministry of Magic. That’s because he lost his mother and older sister to a corrupted item.”
Wellmy’s eyes widened at this.
Е̄n üm̀а.í d̆
It was a well-known fact that Aides had enforced strict regulations surrounding cursed magic items, to the point where some called his measures “inhumane.” He dedicated himself to uncovering how these items worked and making the truth accessible to all.
“To be exact, they were his stepmother and stepsister. This isn’t public knowledge, but Aides is actually his predecessor’s nephew.”
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“I had no idea,” Wellmy said.
“Most people don’t. Only a handful of government officials know the truth.”
Aides’s father had worked as an aide to the former Marquess Ormirage, helping him manage his estate. He had sadly lost his life during an earthquake when a building he had been investigating collapsed on him.
“His wife was already pregnant with their child when he died. The son she gave birth to had purple eyes.”
Е̃ n̂ ŭm̀а
“That’s...” Wellmy gaped. The circumstances surrounding Aides’s birth were very similar to Iora’s.
“The marquess then asked Aides’s mother what she wanted to do. He gave her two options: take the child and raise him, or pretend that he never even existed and remarry into another house. She chose the latter.”
In other words, she abandoned her son, leaving the former Marquess Ormirage to raise him.
“But why...?” Wellmy asked.
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“Only she knows the full truth. Ultimately, Aides’s predecessor registered him as his biological son and, seeing his potential for magic, named him his heir just before his daughter came of age. She was originally supposed to find a husband and inherit the title. I don’t know how she actually felt about the decision to name Aides the heir, but when asked, she simply forced a smile and said, ‘There’s nothing I can do about it.’”
A noble lady whose entire future was stolen by her newborn brother, and a marchioness whose daughter had lost the position she had been promised her entire life. Wellmy wondered if they had secretly carried dark thoughts about Aides.
Е̊ nú m̀ а
“From what I saw, there didn’t seem to be any bad blood between them. Well, at least not on the surface. Even if they had an issue with the marquess’s decision, they likely didn’t think much of it. They were both highly educated noble ladies, after all. Besides, it wasn’t like Aides’s predecessor was a monster—he might have been stern, but he truly loved his family, including his nephew.”
But the cursed magic items Clartes had mentioned had shattered the peace.
“Someone sneakily hid items that amplified one’s darkest feelings in Aides’s stepmother’s and stepsister’s rooms,” Clartes resumed. “Of course, no one knew it at the time. The marquess had become much busier after losing his right-hand man—his brother—and wasn’t home often enough to notice the changes in his wife and daughter until it was too late.”
Aides’s mother and sister began bullying him. Though at first, it was subtle; they would simply ignore or avoid him.
“Still, Aides didn’t understand what he had done to make them suddenly hate him. One day, as he nonchalantly corrected an incantation that his sister had mispronounced, she lashed out at him.”
According to Clartes, the items that had been hidden in her and her mother’s rooms had basically been like mental bombs.
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“My family, the Lirouds, had a good relationship with the Ormirages, but none of us had ever been in their bedrooms, so we hadn’t noticed the cursed items either. Aides’s sister was furious, asking him if he thought she and her mother were idiots and if he was happy to have stolen her birthright from her. She grabbed a fruit knife and slashed at him, while her mother grabbed the poker that had been left in the fireplace and tried to attack Aides with it.”
Feeling that he was in danger, Aides used magic to disarm them. But when the fire hook hit the floor, the remnants of the flames clinging to it flared up. In her frenzy, Aides’s daughter had smashed their father’s collection of high-proof alcohol to the floor, and it didn’t take long for the flames to ignite the spilled liquid.
“In the blink of an eye, the dresses of his sister and mother caught fire, engulfing them in flames. Yet, they continued trying to attack him. He was unable to save them. All he could do was watch as fire spread over the living room. In the end, the commotion attracted a chamberlain, who rushed in, grabbed Aides, and ran to safety. Have you noticed that Aides is always wearing a glove on his left hand?” Clartes asked, a tinge of sadness in his tone.
Wellmy nodded. “I have.”
She had found it strange that he never removed it, not even to sleep.
“He has a burn scar on his left hand, from when his sister almost managed to grab him. He told me about it after the accident.”
W̃ ё b̄ n̊о̄ vеl̂ Ě ñ ù m̂ā
The truth was never made public, as it would have caused an uproar. Aides had claimed that they had just left the fireplace unattended, causing it to go out of control. Besides, the ones who had caused the fire had already lost their lives.
To this day, no one knew who had put the cursed items in the two women’s rooms.
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“Aides never resented them for what they did. But he loathes the cursed items that made them that way,” Clartes added.
“My mother and sister were kind,” Aides had said. “Even if they hated me, they never would have acted on those feelings.”
“From then, Aides, who had already been a brilliant mage back then, started avoiding women, all while devoting himself to his studies and magic. It was around that point that I began to volunteer at the orphanage where I met your mother, while His Majesty began working on legal reforms. This incident left its mark in many ways.”
Then, Clartes gave up his peerage to be with the woman he loved.
Ӗn ü ṁa. ǐ d̄
“I don’t know much more about what Aides did back then. In the end, I couldn’t be by his side when his heart must’ve been aching the most,” he said with a deep sigh, the regret evident in his tone.
Wellmy felt like she understood his feelings as if they were hers.
“Father, is that why you agreed to teach me disenchanting...?” she asked.
“It is. And I’m sure it must be why Aides chose to help you and Iora as well. He likely kept telling himself that if he had noticed the changes in his mother and sister sooner, if he had asked more questions, if he had called for help—perhaps he could have saved them.”
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In the Ernests’ case, Gordley had been the one who’d noticed the cursed items. Wellmy had wanted to save her sister, so she had gone to ask Clartes for help and sent that letter to Aides.
“Of course, helping you won’t erase the mistakes Aides made back then. He helped you purely for his own self-satisfaction. But it’s exactly because of that incident that he became the head of the Ministry of Magic and that I started a disenchanting clinic to help others.”
Ėñ ũ m̆ а̌. і̃d
He hoped he could prevent at least some tragedies like the one that had befallen the Ormirages.
“You truly made the best choices you could with the hand you were dealt, Wellmy. Aides saw that you were in a similar situation to his own and that you’d done everything you could to overcome it. You were striving to accomplish what he couldn’t. You must have been dazzling in his eyes.”
Wellmy’s efforts had stolen his heart. That was why he had helped her.
“He truly is enamored with you. I know you may find his behavior questionable at times, but I haven’t seen him this happy since before his mother and sister’s deaths. You’ve healed his heart.”
As Wellmy listened to her father, she felt confused by the emotions bubbling within her.
What is this feeling?
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Aides constantly teased her. Yet, at times, his gaze would soften as he looked at her. Every day, he showered her with affection, embracing her and gently stroking her head. Wellmy struggled to be honest with her emotions, but she did her best to return his gestures, and Aides smiled brightly every time she did.
There was no trace of the “cold, chauvinistic, lord of magic” when he was with her.
Wellmy didn’t really understand what Clartes had meant when he’d said that she’d “healed” Aides’s heart. Aides always looked perfect. He constantly seemed to be able to see right through her, and he never hesitated to give her lots and lots of love. If she had truly been useful to him, even without realizing it, then...
It... It makes me happy.
Wellmy had felt like she had done nothing but indulge in Aides’s kindness without giving anything in return. Knowing that she had been able to help him in some way made her very, very happy.
“Thank you, father,” she said. She was glad that Clartes had told her about Aides’s past.
W е̃ b n̂оv̄ е l̂ E n̂ǔṁ а̀
As she blinked away the tears that had pooled in her eyes, she reflected on the fact that she had become quite given to weeping since moving into Aides’s home—though most of the time, the tears were happy ones. Back at the Ernests’ estate, she had rarely cried.
“Wellmy, I’d like you to be a little more affectionate toward Aides as well. He has lost every single person who could give him love. The previous Marquess Ormirage was so busy that he likely didn’t have much time to pay attention to him. So if you can, it would be nice if you could return all the affection he offers you.”
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“I understand.”
Clartes nodded, satisfied with Wellmy’s response, before getting up from his seat. He bid his daughter goodbye, told her that he’d come to see her again, and went home.
Wellmy cried a little after he left.
When Aides stepped out of his study that evening, she immediately wrapped him in a tight hug.
W е̃ b̆n о̃ v̊ẽ l Ӗṅ ũm̃а́
“Is something the matter, Wellmy?” he asked.
“I love you, Aides,” she muttered, burying her face in his chest as she tightened her hold on him.
For a split second, her fiancé froze. But he soon returned her embrace, a smile of fond exasperation playing on his lips.
“I take it Clartes has been a little too chatty, hmm?”
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“Father wasn’t ‘too chatty.’ He told me something very important.”
Now that Wellmy understood more about Aides’s state of mind and the motivation behind his actions, she felt a little closer to him.
Е̂ n̆u̇m̌ a .і̀ d
Perhaps it was just a delusion, though.
“I won’t let you go. Even if you get tired of me, I’ll never, ever leave your side, my lord.”
“It’s Aides, Wellmy. I told you to call me by my name.”
Aides gently stroked the top of Wellmy’s head. Then, he picked her up and held her in his arms, as he liked to do.
“Besides, you couldn’t possibly leave. You’re mine, Wellmy Ernest,” Aides said, looking at her as if she were his most precious treasure.
In silence, Wellmy wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head against her chest.
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May my feelings reach him, at least a little.
