Chapter 21
21화
Three people and one egg huddled together in a dark bedroom.
“Stop spouting that ridiculous nonsense!”
The Head Maid’s cry sounded like a scream.
Clutching her forehead with a twisted expression, she ground her teeth in a voice thick with deep regret.
“No…… such nonsense……. I think I was too hasty. Showing this room to Mr. Lu so carelessly.”
No matter what she muttered, Lu, the condemned party, showed no sign of listening even with half an ear.
Lu was simply busy scrutinizing the surface of Viscount Weatherwoods(egg) with keen interest.
I approached him and quietly asked.
“Is it true?”
“If you’re going to ask a question, include the subject.”
Cheeky bastard. I glanced at the Head Maid and asked again.
“I asked if this egg is really <Dian Kete’s Five Legacies>.”
Dian Kete’s Five Legacies.
Legendary magic artifacts that, when all five were gathered, could perfectly cure any incurable disease.
It had been just five minutes since the Head Maid and Lu had exchanged oaths. That’s when the three of us had come up to Viscount Weatherwoods’s bedroom together.
Even Lu, who was as sharp as they come, couldn’t hide his shocked expression upon learning his employer’s true identity.
He strode right up to the bed. Then, as he closely examined the egg’s surface, the first thing out of his mouth was.
“Head Maid. You said ‘this’ is Viscount Weatherwoods?”
“Yes.”
“That can’t be right.”
“It’s hard to believe, but it’s the truth. This egg—no, Viscount Weatherwoods—was repeatedly entrusted to me by the previous master to raise…….”
“This isn’t alive. Not unless it’s a highly sophisticated magic artifact.”
“……What did you say?”
“Especially with this utterly perverse taste in appearance.”
A faint sneer curled Lu’s lips as his slender fingers smoothly traced the egg’s surface.
“No matter how I look at it, this has to be a magic artifact made by that guy, Dian Ket.”
The Head Maid, utterly appalled, accused Lu of being a liar.
It was a natural reaction given her position, but I couldn’t lend any support to her claim.
‘Lu is an exceptional mage.’
Like me, he was someone hunting for Dian Ket’s relics. There was no reason for him to badmouth the egg’s identity without evidence.
“……Haa. Mr. Lu, let me apologize first. I think I overreacted. Anyone would have doubts about the viscount’s true nature.”
The Head Maid detached her lips with a somewhat calmer expression.
“Your assertion is wrong. This egg has been growing for four years. If you press your ear to it, you can feel a pulse. It is a living being.”
“Hmm. It seems you can’t bring yourself to believe me, Head Maid.”
Lu flashed a bright smile from beneath his brooding eyes, then abruptly clenched his fist tight.
“Fine then. Let me prove it to you directly.”
Crunch.
There was no time to stop him. Lu’s massive fist smashed straight through the egg’s smooth, pearl-like surface.
‘This…….’
He’s always been unhinged, but today he’s lost his damn mind!
“No!”
The instant the pale-faced Head Maid rushed forward to shove Lu’s chest away, a brown pupil materialized on the purplish-white egg’s surface.
Just like an eyeball.
-Damage detected.
I saw it clearly. The shell’s interior was completely hollow.
-Outer shell repair.
With that dissonant voice, the shell fragments that had rained down onto the bed floated up into the air. As they drifted back to their original positions one by one, the egg restored itself seamlessly, as if the hole had never existed.
The brown pupil vanished as well.
“What in the world…….”
The Head Maid staggered backward, staring blankly at the sight.
“No, no way. This egg is really a magic artifact? Then……. What am I? What have I been protecting all this time? The viscount……. What on earth did the viscount…….”
“We’ll figure that out starting now.”
With that casual reply, Lu placed his hand on the egg’s surface and began chanting a long, arcane incantation that was hard to follow.
Kiiing.
The egg hummed in resonance. Soon, a blue glow poured forth from its smooth exterior.
Iridescent letters emerged within the light, rippling softly like curtains in the breeze. They multiplied rapidly, swelling until they filled the entire field of vision.
A single tear rolled down the Head Maid’s cheek as she gazed at the miraculous sight.
“It really was a magic artifact.”
With the Head Maid sunk in grief, only a fellow maid could comfort her.
I patted her shoulder, trying to ease her anguish.
“Not just any magic artifact—a top-tier one.”
“…….”
“Sell it, and you’d hit the jackpot.”
“……Miss Daizy, you really need to learn how to comfort people properly.”
The Head Maid slowly wiped away her tears and lifted her head to peer at the letters floating in the air. A faint glimmer of awe began to spark in her previously vacant eyes.
“But isn’t this a magic decryption? I’ve never seen one this detailed before.”
“Has to be your first. After all, there’s no genius of my caliber anywhere else.”
Lu gave a half-hearted reply before slowly reading—or rather, summarizing—the magic decryption.
“This artifact’s function appears to be defensive. It’s embedded with a variety of wide-area attack spells. The objective imprinted on its artificial ego is…….”
He paused for a beat, then continued in an odd tone.
“Protection of the Weatherwoods Family.”
“Protection?”
“Hmm. Can’t think of a better word for it.”
“That’s what it says, Head Maid.”
No response came.
‘Is she breaking down in sobs?’
I turned my head in concern, but.
‘……Worried for nothing.’
Against all expectation, the Head Maid’s eyes were wide open. Her gaze fixed upward on Lu’s magic decryption was positively sparkling.
Impossible to believe this was the same woman who’d been weeping moments ago.
‘Definitely the first time I’ve seen a magic decryption this lengthy and thorough.’
Magic decryption.
The act of a mage using their intuition, insight, and knowledge to unfold a specific spell’s blueprint into language. An advanced technique even novice mages couldn’t dream of attempting.
I’d seen magic decryptions now and then through mages in the Mado Alliance. But they were always just a few hazy words drifting by or a couple of short phrases at most.
‘A decryption laid out this systematically? First time in my life.’
The one who truly felt that brilliance down to her bones wasn’t me—it was the Head Maid. After all, she was a mage, just like Lu.
“My goodness. Every single explanation is a complete, perfect sentence.”
Respect and excitement now welled up in the Head Maid’s wide eyes.
Her fingertips trembled faintly as they gingerly traced the letters etched in the air.
Perhaps awed by Lu’s astonishing display of magic, the fierce momentum with which she’d branded him a liar had clearly deflated.
She seemed to have moved past denial and anger into a stage of tentative bargaining.
‘Now that she’s faced the truth, depression should hit next.’
The five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.
Realizing the being she’d devoted four years to was an illusion would leave deep scars.
She might even lose all sense of purpose and do something drastic……
“Mr. Lu, where on earth did you come from? Who did you study magic under? It’s impossible to reach this level at your apparent age—I’m dying to know your real age. Every time I try decryption magic, my vision whites out and I pass out. Is it just a lack of practice? Or…….”
She looks perfectly fine. No need to worry at all.
But……
“Especially with this utterly perverse taste in appearance.”
“No matter how I look at it, this has to be a magic artifact made by that guy, Dian Ket.”
Something about his phrasing had been nagging at me from earlier.
“Lu.”
“Lu?”
“Mr. Lu.”
He nodded, as if to say, go ahead.
“Are you acquainted with Dian Ket, by any chance?”
Arms crossed, Lu didn’t even bother turning to face me as he shot back.
“Curious?”
That curt retort planted a fresh certainty in my mind.
‘They do know each other.’
Dian Ket died before I was even born. For Lu to “know” him meant he had to be at least forty-something.
But that was just the floor. Factoring in that Dian Ket had lived well over a century…
Just how old was Lu?
‘I knew he seemed a little off.’
Must be an old mage thing, living that long.
They say no one’s as crazy as someone still studying magic into their old age. Now it all makes sense.
This gave me fresh intel on Lu. One, not nobility but loaded with cash. Two, buddies with Dian Ket.
“Not curious.”
“Too bad. Well then, now…….”
Lu flicked his hand through the air, and the magic decryption adorning the room dissolved like ink in water. The Head Maid let out a sigh laced with clear regret.
“We’ve confirmed our employer’s intriguing true nature. Time to move on to the next phase.”
“Next phase?”
“Noble Assembly.”
At that, the Head Maid glanced at the egg with a heavy sigh. Her expression was a tangled mess too complex to describe.
“With your level of magical prowess, Mr. Lu…… fooling those sharp-eyed, paranoid nobles wouldn’t be out of the question.”
“Obviously.”
“The Viscount Weatherwoods known publicly is the previous master’s nephew. To be precise, the only child of his younger brother, who was two years his junior. The brother married young and had the kid early. The whole family perished, but…….”
So the nephew survived to carry on the Weatherwoods Family. Not some distant collateral branch either, so no legitimacy gripes.
“He turns exactly twenty this year—perfect age to start making public appearances. Still, I’m concerned. Sending Miss Daizy out alone doesn’t sit right with me. But having us tag along as her maid or manservant would look improper.”
Can’t argue with that.
If the viscount were a woman, bringing along a lady’s maid for makeup or changing clothes wouldn’t raise eyebrows. But a man? That could spark all sorts of awkward rumors.
Especially an unwed young man—people might whisper about him parading a mistress.
The Weatherwoods heir emerging after four years would draw no small scrutiny. Best to keep it as low-key as possible.
“Then have him get married. Stick a wife by his side, and you can keep things under control.”
Control? What am I, a dog with the leash off?
Not a bad idea by any means, but the Head Maid’s face stayed grim.
“That’s a good option, but…… I can’t leave the estate.”
“Doesn’t matter. I never intended to leave it to you anyway, Head Maid.”
“If not me, then who?”
Lu eyed the Head Maid like she was asking the obvious.
‘Hold on.’
No way, right?
“Me, obviously.”
And just like that, it snared another one.
