Chapter 16: Tamed by the Duke’s Kindness.

“Are you awake?”

I blinked. Deep blue eyes, like the finest sapphires, were right in front of me.

“You should be able to get up now.”

Even after the King’s Brother let go of my wrist and stepped back, I remained lying down.

It was because I had seen my brother’s face for the first time in a long while. Even though it was in a dream.

It would have been better if I had seen him smiling. Like when he scored the luxury sneaker series with the blue cat robot drawing.

“Can’t you get up?”

He meant there was no way I couldn’t.

What an impatient noble. Even more so than me, a Korean. I wiggled my toes and sat up.

“Any abnormalities?”

Ah, he really asked out of worry.

Maybe because I revisited my dark history after so long, my nerves were on edge.

No, let’s not try to gloss over it with the light word ‘dark history.’ That was the worst decision I ever made.

I calmed my nerves, which were trying to flare up on their own, with mana breathing.

I couldn’t take my anger out on my employer, who wasn’t even a friend but was trying to help me, just because my mood was messy.

When I inhaled, I realized.

The fact that my mana, which should have been completely drained and empty, was already full.

Also, the fact that the total amount of mana I could hold had increased slightly.

Right now, even on the eleventh attempt, I felt like I could create a lighter flame instead of just sparks.

I see, a lighter. At my current level, a lighter would be just right instead of a welding torch.

Recalling the procedure the King’s Brother guided me through, I moved my mana.

I couldn’t manifest it instantly like the King’s Brother.

I took my time distributing and moving mana along the path I guided, and when I felt ready, I recited the activation word.

A flame exactly like one from a lighter rose above my index finger.

I counted inwardly.

When the flame was maintained until I counted to three, I carefully added oxygen…

The flame, which seemed to grow as it burned oxygen, went out in an instant. Just like the way I kept failing.

Although I didn’t succeed this time either, my sharply risen nerves had actually calmed down.

I turned my gaze to the King’s Brother who was watching me.

“My body is fine.”

My body, which had been damp with sweat, was dry and fluffy. Without any unpleasantness, leaving only freshness.

“Thank you.”

The King’s Brother had taken care of my body and even replenished my depleted mana.

I can’t even imagine what level of difficulty transferring mana to an unconscious person is.

When I expressed my gratitude politely, the King’s Brother frowned with one eye.

That expression seemed like embarrassment.

Since I am a real exclusive servant now, I had to pay more attention to reading my employer’s expressions.

“When trying to manifest magic for the first time, it’s important to find out which element you are familiar with, but even if it’s an element that fits you well, they say it usually takes about a week to succeed in manifesting magic for the first time. I heard only one or two out of ten manifest their element on the first try.”

That long speech from the King’s Brother was the answer to the question I asked before collapsing.

Is my talent in the top 20%? If it’s a number much larger than my CSAT percentile, it doesn’t seem like such a great talent.

Since talent doesn’t guarantee results, there was plenty of room for effort.

In that sense, I decided not to ask how many attempts it took for the Duke to succeed in magic.

It seemed he would have not just manifested elemental magic on the first try but succeeded perfectly, whether I heard the answer or not.

“Above all, your eccentric imagination is your most outstanding talent. Your improvisation and adaptability in choosing your chest or finger as the release point instead of your palm were good. However, don’t try to transform it forcefully until the standard mana road is fully established. It’s dangerous.”

“You are truly kind, Duke.”

This time too, it wasn’t sarcasm or flattery but a genuine expression of my heart.

The King’s Brother frowned again instead of asking if I needed money this time.

Embarrassment about the praise? No, that’s wrong. A completely incorrect interpretation.

That action of touching his forehead and slightly bowing his head seemed to indicate some other calculation.

“Eighteen.”

“Pardon?”

While I was suspecting what scheme my employer, whose mind wasn’t as transparent as a diamond, was plotting, he called out a number I didn’t understand.

Ah, did he say his age? Just as I was reflecting on whether I viewed my employer’s mind too suspiciously.

“When you turn eighteen, go to university. Right now, you are a suspicious servant with surprisingly high magical talent who suddenly appeared from the back alleys. But if you study magic for three years and get accepted to university, you will look like a gifted child discovered and brought in by the eccentric King’s Brother. Make time your ally.”

“Do you wish for me to become your eyes and ears outside, Duke?”

“If you still wish to do so after going to university.”

It was a tone implying that wouldn’t be the case.

The King’s Brother’s command was purely beneficial to me.

“If I go to university, who will serve you when you face your Rut, Duke?”

“By then, I should be able to control my pheromones properly.”

He says it will naturally happen, but the person who trusts that the least is probably the King’s Brother himself.

“Am I that suspicious?”

“You are suspicious.”

At the King’s Brother’s firmness, I couldn’t help but ask.

“Then why do you treat me so well?”

The King’s Brother, who didn’t answer my question for a long while, lay his body on the marble floor just like I did when my mana was depleted.

Looking up at the splendid chandelier meaninglessly, the King’s Brother opened his mouth at some point.

“Because I, too, have wished for someone’s help.”

It was a voice as small as a sigh, but I heard his words clearly.

His figure lying on the cold floor looked similar to when he had collapsed covered in wounds.

Did the younger him look the same back then?

I couldn’t know exactly what the King’s Brother was thinking, but he seemed to be recalling his past self.

The air became heavy.

From afar, I thought I heard a faint scream.

“Oh my.”

The King’s Brother frowned. He let out a long sigh. Looking at me sitting blankly, he smiled bitterly.

Only then did I realize. The sound I thought I just heard wasn’t my imagination. It was a scream let out by someone startled by the King’s Brother’s pheromones.

It must be because I dreamt of my brother. I wanted to comfort him.

I have regretted for a very long time. Wishing I had tried to make my father understand instead of making him give up on me. Wishing I hadn’t acted pretentiously pretending to be generous to my brother, wishing I hadn’t dreamed of myself belonging to a luxury brand, but instead dreamed of making our father’s jewelry shop a luxury brand together with my brother.

It was useless.

I hoped the King’s Brother wouldn’t make the mistakes I made. I wished he would turn his eyes from the past and look forward.

Although I am not in a position to dare advise him.

Still, I knew one story that could divert his attention.

“You say I am suspicious, but as I already told you, I don’t know about myself either. Since the father who raised me has passed away, there is no one who knows about me. However, I once had a dream of another world more vivid than my own life. It was so vivid as if it were real. Until recently, I thought the place in that dream existed somewhere in this world.”

Doubt filled the King’s Brother’s gaze. I continued speaking while looking straight at him.

“In the world I saw in my dream, there were no pheromones or magic.”

Blinking his eyes, the King’s Brother soon let out a chuckle, a smirk.

“Then what determines status there?”

“Money.”

The King’s Brother’s smile deepened.

“It was a world where status rose the more you made and sold things more people wanted to buy, the more you provided jobs to more people, and the more you planted the illusion in more people that they could live well in the future.”

As my words continued, the smile began to disappear from the King’s Brother’s face again. Eventually, he glared at me with an expressionless face.

I returned a look saying I didn’t know why he was making a scary face. That I just told a story of a world I saw in a dream.

Glaring at my brazen expression, the King’s Brother finally let out a short exclamation, ‘Ha’.

“You really are an audacious servant.”

The King’s Brother growled with a fierce face. But he was clearly smiling. Like a beast that found a target to hunt.

****

“Right, even if your mana is depleted, you shouldn’t lose consciousness. You did well today.”

I didn’t even have the energy to be happy about the praise. Far from lifting the corners of my mouth, even breathing was overwhelming.

This was the first time I didn’t faint while receiving magic lessons from the King’s Brother.

Which means for almost a year, once a week, sometimes twice, every time we had magic lessons, I fainted, lost consciousness, or fell asleep as if fainting.

If even a little mana remained inside me, the King’s Brother noticed like a ghost. Then I would forcibly squeeze out magic that twinkled small and preciously like a firefly and faded like a mayfly, and end up closing my eyes.

“Even if you meet an enemy that makes you consume all your mana, you have a higher chance of living if you stay conscious. Whether you fight with bare fists, dodge attacks, or luckily find someone to help.”

What kind of unfortunate childhood did my employer spend? Every time I collapse, the examples he gives are situations where life is at stake. It’s incredibly bleak.

However, they were neither wrong words nor events with zero probability of actually happening.

At Billy’s pub, I learned that if an alcoholic regular who came every day wasn’t seen one day, it wasn’t because that customer changed shops or quit drinking, but because they disappeared from the world.

Dying from a beating after drunken bravado, or getting robbed and killed on the way home with a clear mind after receiving weekly wages. It was that kind of era.