Caught off guard and having watched a foreign object fly into the room with his charge, Theo rushed back to the mansion at full speed, threw open the door, and dashed up the stairs.
“My lady!” he called out.
Though he had Poison Resistance, he brought a cloth to his mouth, wary of the unknown substance.
He aimed at the room and chanted, “Blast!”
The Level 2 wind spell blew the poison out of the room through the open window.
Theo ran inside. He couldn’t smell anything, and his body showed no abnormalities, but two servants lay clutching their chests, their faces ashen. Beyond them crouched the young noblewoman.
“My la—”
His voice died mid-word.
“Ah ha... Ah ha ha ha!”
Licia was laughing maniacally while clutching her chest. Theo stood frozen, speechless, as she slowly stood up and turned to face him. Her whole body was wrapped in light-aspected aether, and though her mouth was red with blood and her face was terribly ashen, she continued to cackle, making the young steward take a step back.
“Look, Theo, look!” she exclaimed. “I can finally use light aether! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
Theo’s face paled and he gasped at the eerie sight.
✦ ✦ ✦
This Alicia Melsis, unlike the one in the story, had been unable to learn Light Sorcery at all. That was why her conquest attempts had stagnated. But now, by a cruel joke of fate, when exposed to the poison that blocked blood flow through the heart by forcibly spawning aethercrystals there, she’d survived—thanks to a light-elemental aethercrystal born of her own twisted obsession.
Prince Amor could now recommend her as the next holy maiden of the church, and from then on, she would win the hearts of the crown prince and all the others, deepening the rift between Elvan and his fiancées even further.
And the academy, with the politically savvy princess and her exceptionally powerful guard gone, was headed further into chaos.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wh-What the...”
Late at night, at the deserted entrance to the temple, Nathanital shivered at the faint sounds coming from within the building.
He’d accepted a request from the girl he loved and petitioned the Holy Disciplinary Corps to educate Karla, but as time passed, he’d lost confidence in whether he’d done the right thing. No matter how terribly Karla had treated Licia, was personality correction something that humans, children of the divine, should do at all?
And besides, Karla was the crown prince’s fiancée. Would it have been best to get permission from his grandfather, the high priest? And if his grandfather disagreed with the idea, would Nathanital be held responsible? Ursula had also agreed, so he wasn’t fully at fault, right? Humans like Karla and Alia, who made light of life, couldn’t possibly be forgiven by the heavens. He wasn’t wrong...was he?
With such thoughts plaguing his mind, Nathanital had secretly come here, alone, to see what had happened and be sure that the matter wouldn’t be made public. But for some reason, not even the guards were at the entrance today. Anxious, he used the key his grandfather had entrusted to him to open the temple door and go inside.
He was greeted by the sight of a hazy white mist and the faint smell of something burning deeper within.
“Is that smoke? Has there been a fire?”
There were children in the temple orphanage too. Worried that they might be caught up in the blaze, with no adults around to alert, and above all unable to conjure up an excuse for his presence there even if he did alert someone, Nathanital decided to step into the depths himself, timid as he was.
“Oh, Lord Nathanital. Good evening.”
“Eek!”
Karla’s slender fingers reached out of the darkness and gripped Nathanital’s face. The boy tumbled to the ground, and she began to drag him along.
“Aaaaaaaaargh!”
Flames emerged from the hand on his face, making him shriek in agony as his skin was scorched.
At that moment, fresh air rushed in from the open entrance, and flames surged from the depths to meet it, licking through the interior of the building. Fire magic radiated from deeper inside the temple and blew away the great entrance doors.
Karla emerged from the flames, still gripping the screaming and writhing Nathanital. Several onlookers had rushed out of the surrounding houses to gawk at the blazing temple, and Karla smiled at them with genuine joy.
Thanks to the efforts of the surrounding residents and chapel priests who rushed over to use water sorcery, the late-night temple fire was extinguished.
Karla, Count Leicester’s daughter, was thought to have ignited the blaze. But after discussing matters with the royal family and Count Leicester, the Holy Church—fearing exposure of both their underground education facilities and the attempt on the life of a royal fiancée—ultimately decided to treat it as the work of an unknown arsonist and not pursue the matter any further.
But there were witnesses, even if they were few. They could not be kept quiet.
Noble houses, fearing the madness of a girl who was individually as strong as an entire noble family’s military force, expressed dissatisfaction and concern to the royal family. His Majesty the King assured them that Karla’s qualifications as the crown prince’s fiancée would be reassessed and the results would be divulged by the prince’s graduation day.
Thus, the incident reached a tentative conclusion.