“As you know, House Lillard is not very influential there. Because of this, as a show of the new era we’ve entered, we’d like to offer our assistance to House Sevensworth.”
In a fit of rage due to his daughter’s engagement being ended by the former crown prince, Duke Lillard had shifted his house’s support to back the first prince. He was the only duke to do so, but since he was new to the faction, viscounts and others had more influence than him. It must’ve been hard on his pride as a noble to be regarded as beneath those with lower status. At this point, he must have been unable to handle it any longer.
“If that’s the case, you don’t necessarily need to submit your house under our command. You could simply stand alongside us as allies. If anything, I believe that would be the normal thing to do.”
“This is a golden chance for our house to contribute, so we’d like to do our best to assist you, Sir Ginorious. We’d like you to entrust us with the first strike,” she said, curtsying again in the old Sevensworth way.
Not only was she acting as if I’d already accepted her request to enter under our command, but she even made the request to strike first. She’d also shifted from calling me Duke Ginorious back to a more intimate “Sir Ginorious.” It reminded me of charismatic salesmen and showed me how much she excelled at negotiations. She really lived up to her reputation as the “Gold Rose.”
The reason for joining us made sense. They’d been essentially sidelined and treated lesser in the first prince’s faction. Of course joining our forces and regaining their glory was a more attractive option. The request to strike first under our command was also a way to do that. If they were going to sell their services and make us indebted to them, they might as well go big.
“You seem fairly certain that we’re going to emerge victorious in this war,” I said.
At the same time, though her reasoning made sense, there was something off. The only way they could reap the benefits of this arrangement was if we won. If we lost, they’d go down with us. This was a war between one territory and an entire country. The Sevensworths were definitely at a disadvantage with our forces. But even with that in mind, House Lillard seemed assured of our victory, and I couldn’t understand why.
“Well, of course I am,” she said with a confident smile. It didn’t seem like she was lying.
“What makes you so confident?”
“In order for you to trust me, I’ll reveal my secret. I’m actually a natural-born sorcerer, and I can see the flow of mana.”
“I see...you have a magic eye, then? So what did you see of our house?”
“Allow me to begin by repeating what the pope claims. Though you have healing magic that was bestowed upon you from the gods, you’re not a trained sorcerer, so you have not studied magic. That’s why you are supposedly unable to use magic, correct?”
“That’s right. That is what the church says.”
“However, I saw you activate magic during your battle with Count Fletcher in the swordsmanship tournament. It was unbelievably efficient, and very complicated to the point where I couldn’t even tell what kind of magic it was. It was a type I’ve never seen before in my life. If you can use magic like that, I’ve no doubt that your existence alone will easily make up for your army’s lack of manpower.”
I see. She saw me use magic. Well, now it made sense why she wanted to join our house. The swordsmanship tournament had taken place a long time before the church had come out with their story of how I’d had a divine vision. She knew the church wasn’t telling the truth and therefore, she saw me not as someone blessed by the gods but as a very skilled sorcerer who could even lift Ana’s curse.
The Sevensworths would be hailed as heroes if we successfully defended the country from an invasion. It would raise our status, and if we didn’t lose too much in the effort, then the current king, who was already in a shaky position, would be put into an even more precarious one.
Though there were some houses who predicted we’d be successful, they all expected it to come with severe losses. However, she alone could tell that I was a sorcerer with magic technology too advanced for this era. She realized I could most likely come up with an answer to Thorsdale’s new weapon and keep losses to a minimum.
Now that I thought about it, it was true that she’d started talking to me more proactively after the swordsmanship tournament. So this was why her attitude had changed so suddenly. For the mock battle, I’d initially planned on letting Count Fletcher win, but I saw Ana cheering her heart out for me in the stands, and I realized I couldn’t let myself lose. Seeing her so earnestly cheering for me, I decided to give it my all instead, and as a result, I’d used a magic called overclock.
Though I’d started off the battle with body fortification magic, I’d made sure to disguise it so the sorcerers in the stands couldn’t sense me using it. However, I’d used overclock in the midst of our duel. Since it was spur of the moment, I forgot to cloak it.
What she’d seen wasn’t my body fortification but overclock, which meant her magic eye most likely wasn’t good enough to see through my cloaking spell. That being said, I still needed to be careful. I used a much stronger cloaking spell than usual to mask my analysis magic now. As I observed her, I realized that she had a magic circuit in her right eye. I see... Judging by the structure of the circuit, it’s always active and it can only see mana.
“You’re not the only one in House Lillard who can use magic, are you?” I said.
She didn’t even blink or flinch at my question. She was really living up to her name as the Gold Rose. However, with the analysis magic I’d cast on my eye just now, I carefully observed the flow of chi in her body and could see that she was flustered.
But that wasn’t the only thing I learned. There was something abnormal about her circuits too. For natural-born sorcerers, they could use magic from birth; in other words, they were born with mana circuits and chi circuits already developed. Usually, they were optimized for a specific type of magic that they’d naturally be good at. However, her circuits were not efficient enough to function as a base for her eye, which could only be because she was trying to develop new circuits, which were affecting the efficiency of the ones she’d been born with. If she continued to develop new ones, the efficiency of the flow of mana to her eye would continue to drop until one day she’d be unable to use it altogether.
For example, Bridgette was a natural-born sorcerer and her circuits were optimized for producing and controlling pitch-black manifestations. As a result, if she’d been a student in my past life, she wouldn’t have been able to learn magic like we did. She’d have to create entirely new circuits to do so, which would interfere with her natural ones and lower their strength. However, I was teaching her specific magic that fit with her magic circuits.
The problem with Lady Francess was that some of the circuits I saw were ones she’d manually created, and hadn’t been born with. In other words, she was actively studying magic. Though it might not have been public, most likely House Lillard was a family that specialized in magic.