With all the times I’d lived through the same hours, it felt as though ages had passed. In reality, everything had happened in a single day. For all the chaos underground, the only thing that had changed in the domain was that an abandoned well in the forest had filled with water again. When I returned to the mansion late that day, it looked just as it had that morning, and everyone was going about their business as usual.

The servants greeted me but kept their distance, and the soldiers looked uncomfortable when they saw me. They no longer ignored me as they had before my journey, but I still felt like an outsider here. The people around me hadn’t changed since morning. I had.

I was still in a child’s body, but I had a new weapon and a new ability. In fact, I now possessed two inherited abilities—something without precedent. Back in my room, I took out the dagger. It was probably part of a set with the shield and sword she had taken.

Holding it now brought neither the voice nor the vision of the Firebird. I couldn’t even see a chick. But...

HUM.

Mana visible only to me stretched far beyond the dagger’s tip. When I decided to change my mana, as though flicking a switch in my mind, its placid flow flared up and formed a blade. I could only do it while holding this dagger, and I had no idea why it worked. But I knew the ability would be useful.

And perhaps my thinking had changed a little, too. The letter of recommendation Lady Katrine had mentioned—I would once have avoided the whole matter for fear it would draw me into trouble. Now, instead of dismissing it outright, I found myself wondering whether I should accept it.

If my ability was as important as she said, an invitation would surely arrive. Would it be better to refuse and stay here, or accept and head to the capital? There, my standing as a half-accepted noble would likely cause me even more trouble than it did here. I might suffer for nothing, then get caught up in a political struggle. In the worst case, I might not die at all—I might spend the rest of my life in prison.

“Ugh. Now that I think about it, this really is dangerous...” I’d heard bits and pieces, but I needed a proper grasp of the kingdom’s situation. “Not that accepting the invitation will be up to me...” The duke would surely decide as he pleased, but I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.

* * *

“Hmm. I don’t think that’s an education you particularly need, young master...” That was what the clerk told me a few days later when I asked him to explain the kingdom’s politics in detail. He was my teacher, yet even getting him to talk was difficult.

“The duke’s blood runs through my veins too. I need to learn this for his sake and the domain’s future!” “... Well, if you put it that way.” Only by desperately playing the duke’s son, concerned for the domain’s future, did I manage to get him to speak.

“I told you before that the country is divided between factions backing the two princes. Now...” As I’d noticed before, he was remarkably well informed about the kingdom for a clerk. “There’s the noble faction too, but with the king in poor health, the struggle between the factions supporting each prince has grown fierce of late. Disputes between domains have worsened as well.”

I’d experienced one of those disputes firsthand in my previous life. Because of it, I’d had to live through several years again and travel all the way to the Marquess of Hierro’s domain. Of course, the battle in our domain had now never happened, and the events at House Hierro had been covered up as the heir’s death from illness. Still, I knew well enough that the factional fighting was as fierce as he said.

“Young Master Simon’s marriage to the marquess’s daughter was meant to prevent conflict between the princes’ camps, but given the situation now, it won’t be easy to bring things under control. The First Prince is currently crown prince, but even if the king names him his successor before he dies, the Second Prince’s side is unlikely to accept it readily.” It seemed several domains had already seen bloodshed while I was away at House Hierro.

‘Could the people pulling the strings behind what happened at House Hierro have made moves elsewhere too?’ The thought crossed my mind, but with no other information, I could only file it away. The clerk kept talking while my attention wandered.

“Whichever side the noble faction supports will gain a decisive advantage. But its leader is Julian, the king’s younger brother and ruler of a principality, which makes matters terribly complicated. Having become the ruler of a principality, he ought to stay out of the kingdom’s politics. As it is, the whole situation has become rather absurd.” The clerk clicked his tongue softly. He had quite the rebellious streak. Clicking his tongue while discussing the royal family? Perhaps he did it because I was still a child, but he must never behave that way in front of the duke or any other noble.

In any case, if the clerk was right, our kingdom would soon be plunged into civil war. And a civil war over the succession did not seem all that unusual. “Why do they keep doing this? It wastes the kingdom’s strength and costs countless lives. It might be better if one of them were assassinated beforehand...”

Dangerous. This man was dangerous. The clerk teaching me was far more dangerous than I’d thought. He sounded as though he were joking, but saying something like that could easily cost him his head. Now he was looking at me with a knowing smile. He was clearly testing me.

I’d thought he regarded me as a child, but he didn’t. While I’d been studying him, he’d been studying me. Had I underestimated this world and its people yet again? “Ha ha, just a joke. I know you wouldn’t repeat a joke like that elsewhere, young master.” He was right: I couldn’t say such a thing anywhere. Especially not as someone only half accepted here. He changed the subject, and I signaled my agreement with a look.

But what he said next sent a chill down the back of my neck. “Well, lately some people have been saying that supporters are gathering around the princess too—the one everyone expected to marry into another kingdom. They say it’s starting to look like a three-way contest... But honestly, that’s absurd.” If that was true, receiving an invitation would be no small matter! No wonder the knight I’d seen yesterday was worried. I couldn’t help sighing. Why could nothing ever end simply and pleasantly?

“... That’s about the extent of what I know. An ordinary clerk can hardly know more than that. There’s gossip, of course, but it’s nothing more than rumor.” He told me a few other things before wrapping up with that. No, I’m fairly sure you’ve already gone well beyond what an ordinary clerk would know.

I met the clerk’s gaze as he looked at me. Come to think of it, he was my teacher, but I knew very little about him. His name was Ivan, and he was one of the younger clerks handling the domain’s administrative work. That was all I knew. This teacher, though, knew a great deal about me.

I wore a mask during his lessons, just as I did elsewhere, but the need to actually learn meant it slipped from time to time. He had never discovered my secret, of course, yet what he’d said today was shaping up to be another secret shared only between us. He was a dangerous man. I couldn’t yet tell whether he would help me or become an obstacle that forced me to repeat my life. Not long ago, I would have promptly changed teachers and kept my distance. For now, I decided to watch him a little longer.

Several months passed, and the year changed. Now eleven, I was sparring with Miguel in a training ground surrounded by forest. He had returned to the main force and was facing me for the first time in a while. He stared down at his sword in disbelief. It had been cut cleanly in half.

“It must have been getting old,” I said. Miguel narrowed his eyes at me. “That little dagger couldn’t have cut this sword. In fact, I don’t think the blades even touched.” He was right.

To test my new ability, I’d channeled my changed mana into the dagger, and his sword had been severed before it touched the blade. His sword hadn’t been properly infused with mana, and it hadn’t been a serious match, but the mana around my dagger had cut through it. Still, I couldn’t simply agree with him. “They made contact. This sword I got recently does seem to be a good one, though.” “Honestly...” He shook his head and pressed me no further. From his expression, he had no desire to ask questions that might drag him into something troublesome.

“Is that the sword you went out to get with Juan yesterday? I don’t know where you found it, but even I can see it’s a fine dagger. It’s a bit of a shame, though. With your build now, you can use it as a short sword, but once you grow, it’ll only serve as a dagger.” He was right, but I didn’t mind. I pointed to the greatsword leaning against a tree at the edge of the training ground. “I already have a sword to use when I’m grown.” Miguel nodded. “True, there’s that sword. It would be hard to use intricate techniques with it, but a sword that sturdy could be a companion for life.”

He looked back and forth in wonder between the greatsword by the tree and the dagger in my hand. “I don’t know whether to call it remarkable or simply strange. Every time you go somewhere, you come back with another weapon, some technique I can’t make sense of, and skill that’s risen by at least another level...” He sheathed the remains of his sword and fell silent for a moment. Then he said something unexpected.

“I think my training must end here. I have nothing more to teach you.” “Wait, you can’t just say that out of nowhere...” “No. Even before you went to House Hierro, there wasn’t much difference between us. I’ve been thinking about it since then. And crossing swords with you today made it clear: you’re stronger than I am now, young master. I have nothing to teach a student who has surpassed me.” I couldn’t argue. I’d felt the same thing. Despite the difference in our physiques, I believed I could beat him even in a real fight.

“Then who am I supposed to learn from...? Should I ask the knight commander?” But the knight commander would never teach me, and I couldn’t ask the duke directly either. “Why not go to the capital with the second young master in a few years?” “Huh? Has it been decided that Manuel... that my brother will study there?” “Yes. I heard the duke decided after Young Master Simon returned safely.”

“But... I don’t think Manuel or the duchess would allow me to go with him.” “That’s true, but... might it be possible if the duke knew how skilled you are?” Would the duke really make that choice? He valued honor above all else. Would he send someone like me, only half accepted, to the capital? It seemed impossible. Miguel’s face fell as he appeared to realize it too. But there was one way it might happen.