That single thread connecting him to the outside world.
If only he could at least graduate from the Academy without incident, Callius might find the will to step back out into the world once more.
But… how?
How could Callius read and write while locked away in a pitch-black room?
“…Are you listening to me?”
The voice from across the room jolted me back to attention, and I hastily gathered my wits.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear. What did you say?”
“Where did your mind wander off to?”
“I was just a bit lost in thought. What were you saying?”
“I was asking… what color is your hair?”
Huh?
“My hair?”
Where had this question suddenly come from?
Callius had been acting strange lately.
He had begun asking questions he never would have asked before, out of nowhere, just like now.
“Why do you ask about my hair color?”
“Just answer.”
Hesitating under his insistence, I answered.
“It’s golden.”
“Golden? What kind of gold? Dark gold, pale gold, streaked gold? There are many kinds.”
“Hmm… a gold that looks like the color of a lemon.”
“A gold like the color of a lemon.”
Callius repeated my words in a murmur, but before long, he pressed on.
“And what about your eye color?”
The more I thought about it, the stranger it became.
I stared in the direction he stood, but when my answer lagged, a flicker of irritation showed in his voice.
“We spend all day together, and it’s ridiculous that I don’t even know what your face looks like.”
“…Just imagine an ugly face in general.”
“An ugly face?”
“Didn’t you tell me before that I must be ugly?”
“Ah, that’s right.”
“‘Ah, that’s right’?”
Was that all he had to say?
“Still, tell me. I want to imagine that ugly face in detail.”
It wouldn’t be right to express my feelings toward him with outright curses, would it?
Without realizing how stunned I was, Callius kept flooding me with questions.
“So, what color are your eyes? Black? Blue? Or… ah!”
Right then, a loud clatter sounded from his direction, and he fell to the floor, letting out a low groan.
I scrambled up and hurried toward him.
“My Lord! Are you all right?”
“Ugh…”
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine… but it looks like something fell from atop the cabinet.”
I reached down, feeling the floor around him, until something smooth and hard met my fingers.
This texture… a stone?
“It feels like a stone. Why is there a stone on top of the cabinet?”
“Ah, that’s a magic stone.”
“A magic stone?”
I had heard of them before, but this was my first time touching one. Even this sort of rare curiosity existed in the Duke’s estate.
Now that I thought of it, scenes from the original novel came to mind.
Scenes where Callius, after becoming Duke, sat in his dark office, absently fiddling with a magic stone out of habit.
What was this? Was it actually closer to a slime or a fluid creature?
Just then, Callius spoke.
“I got it when I was very young, and it shone with light for days because of leaking mana.”
“Leaking mana?”
“Normally, magic stones keep the energy contained within, but some leak magic outside. You could consider them a kind of defective good.”
Still, he added that they were a rare and fascinating sight.
The moment I heard his words, an idea flashed into my mind, and a storm of possibilities surged through my thoughts.
In the original novel, Callius fiddling with the magic stone seemed to have no real purpose…
But what if it had another use?
“Why did you go quiet all of a sudden?”
Callius asked as I stood lost in thought.
“I was just… thinking about something.”
“About what?”
He asked again, but I didn’t answer, merely continuing to turn the magic stone over in my hand.
Right then, I decided to share the news Brandon had brought.
“My Lord, actually…”
I explained the arrangement where reports could substitute for attendance.
Yet Callius listened without showing the slightest surprise, remaining silent throughout.
“…You already knew about that option, didn’t you?”
I deduced from his demeanor and said.
“Yes, I knew.”
He replied quietly.
“It’s a system created for students forced to drop their studies suddenly due to illness.”
“If you knew, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Why would I tell you? It’s an option that does me no good anyway.”
Just as I expected.
He had given up beforehand, without even bothering to look for a solution.
“How am I supposed to read or write while shut away in here?”
“Then, if only that problem were solved, you’d be willing to try, wouldn’t you?”
“What do you mean? Solving what problem?”
He asked in bewilderment.
Of course, I wasn’t entirely certain a solution was possible.
My idea might work, or it might fall flat.
Still, no one knows the outcome before trying. So I decided to at least give it a shot.
“My Lord, I’ll be stepping out for a moment!”
“What? Where are you going all of a sudden?”
He shouted in astonishment as I suddenly sprang up from my spot.
Without answering, I hurried out of the room.
“Here you go, take this.”
Tilda handed me a pouch.
I immediately reached inside to verify its contents. It felt smooth and solid.
‘I did it… I got it safely.’
A few hours ago.
The moment I had left Callius’s room, I went straight to look for Tilda, asking her to procure some defective magic stones.
Magic stones were strictly regulated in distribution by the temple, but lately they had become easier to find on the market. It was truly fortunate.
It happened that Tilda was on her way to the temple with the other maids to attend morning prayers for a holy day.
When she returned from prayer, she brought me the magic stone sooner than I had expected.
I drew one out to ask the thing that mattered most to me.
“Does this really glow with light?”
“Yes, it does. There are cracks here and there, and something like light leaks through them.”
Tilda described the stone’s state for me.
“I asked the magic stone merchant, and he said some of them leak magic like this from time to time. He told me it has no commercial value and can’t be sold. But… what will you use it for?”
She asked with genuine curiosity.
Even though she had used her precious outing to fulfill my request, it wasn’t the right time to explain.
I merely smiled and pulled money from my pocket.
When I held it out to her, she gently pushed my hands away and said,
“No need. I didn’t buy it.”
“You didn’t buy it?”
“Didn’t I tell you? It’s worthless. Even the merchant looked at me strangely, asking why I’d pick this over a good one. He said that after a few days, it will just turn into an ordinary stone.”
At that, I slipped the money back into my pocket and said,
“All the better. In any case, thank you, Tilda. The young master won’t forget this favor. And if this works, I’ll be sure to tell him the credit is yours!”
“What are you even talking about?”
“See you later!”
Leaving the bewildered Tilda behind, I hurried off.
My heart pounded with anticipation.
‘If only this works…!’
Then perhaps, unlike what happened in the original novel, Callius won’t descend into darkness and can safely assume the position of Duke.
If there was one strange element in the novel worth noting, it was the mystery of his photophobia.
Photophobia was a pivotal element in the story, yet remarkably little information was ever provided about it in the original work.
Because of that, I didn’t know why the condition appeared, nor how it originated.
Even after ‘The Duke of Darkness’ ended, readers wondered if the author had left loose ends untied…
Still, that wasn’t what mattered right now.
What I wanted to know was: what truly caused pain to those suffering from photophobia?
And did it apply to every form of ‘light,’ or were there exceptions?
