Chapter 86

Lucas was no joke during the last lesson either, was he?

By now, he might have collected around a hundred penalty stickers from his tutor.

When I reached the classroom door, I rose onto my tiptoes and peered through the window overlooking the room.

Boing.

The moment I barely managed to poke my eyes above the windowsill—

I saw Lucas paying surprisingly close attention to the lesson.

“For your assignment last time, you were asked to memorize the names of every ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) past head of the Kreutz family. Would you recite them for me?”

“Yes! The first head was Amstrai. The second was Lisritan. The third was Raon. The fourth was Oriosha. The fifth was...”

Amazingly, Lucas rattled off the names without glancing at a single cheat sheet.

What’s gotten into him?!

I nearly fell over in shock.

But come to think of it, Lucas had always shown enthusiasm whenever the Kreutz family was involved.

Lucas really does things properly once he sets his mind to them.

He was terrifying.

I continued watching my older brother, putting more strength into my trembling tiptoes.

“What are you doing?”

“Eek!”

The unexpected, brusque question startled me so badly that my foot slipped.

When I turned my head, Knox was staring at me through sharply narrowed eyes.

“I-I was watching my brother’s lesson! Why?!”

A guilty conscience needed no accuser.

Perhaps my life as a spy had become too deeply ingrained in me.

Even though I had done nothing wrong, I raised my pigtails like bristling antennae and regarded him warily.

“Ahem. Did I look a little suspicious?”

“No. Not suspicious...”

I cleared my throat and asked again, trying to preserve my dignity as a young lady. He shrugged.

“You simply looked a little bored.”

“Huh?”

“Have you been scurrying all over the place because you have nothing to do?”

Oh.

At Knox’s words, my pigtails gradually drooped.

Now that he mentioned it, he was right.

Calypse was busy with his duties as Duke. Kyle was busy with swordsmanship training in the Kreutz order of knights. Lucas was busy with his heir lessons.

And it was not only them. Knox, Mai, and Brad were all occupied with their own work as well.

“......”

Only then did I realize it.

I was the only idle loafer with nothing to do.

***

And so, in my bedroom—

“Munch, munch.”

Roll—

Sprawled across the bed with my arms and legs spread wide, I crunched on the cookies Mai had brought me.

“Come to think of it, I never intended to laze around like this from the start.”

The beginning of my life of eating and idling.

In search of its origins.

“Hmm...”

I sank into serious thought and retraced the past.

First, when I returned to the Kreutz estate as the true young lady—

After hearing everything that had happened in the central region, Delta had immediately shouted,

“You must rest! To think you were abducted at such a young age! You absolutely need to recuperate and soothe both your body and mind!”

Cursing Duke Pose, Delta had been gravely worried that the ordeal of being kidnapped and abused might have left me psychologically traumatized.

He brewed water with precious medicinal herbs for me and gave me sweet candies every day that were supposed to help me sleep.

It wasn’t bad.

At first, doing nothing made me anxious, and I wanted to find something—anything—to occupy myself.

But then—

Honestly, since I became Aisha, I haven’t had a single chance to rest like this, have I?

Using Delta’s recommendation as an excuse, I repeated the same cycle of eating, playing, and sleeping.

Besides, I had achieved the crucial objective of escaping the Pose family completely. Perhaps this was a turning point.

A chance to finally start completing the rest of my bucket list!

...But still...

Now that I had truly done nothing but laze around, I was beginning to feel uneasy.

The words Duke Pose had tried to say before his death also kept circling through my mind.

“You would be astonished if you knew who else was after you besides me. It is Ar—”

King Argen had interrupted him before I could hear the rest, but Duke Pose had clearly been about to name the king as Calypse’s next enemy.

Neither of them knew it, but we were already aware of that fact.

After all, we knew the monster madness-enhancer incident had been a joint operation between King Argen and Duke Pose.

I had even witnessed the king using dark magic with my own eyes. I was a decisive witness.

Perhaps he had simply dismissed me because I was still young and assumed I had forgotten everything in my terror.

But a man that vicious would surely provoke Father again before long.

“The problem is that we don’t have any evidence to catch King Argen right now...”

King Argen had already pinned all his crimes on Duke Pose. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do at present.

“That’s why I’m lazing around, right? Hmm. No. I need to do something as a young lady of the Kreutz family too.”

Pop.

Contrary to my words, my baby belly—plumped up from all the cookies I had been eating—popped out.

Ah. Is this the Korean compulsion I couldn’t forget even after being reborn?

I turned away with unfocused eyes and gazed through the window at the falling snow.

Feeling guilty even while resting. I need to praise myself and offer myself emotional support.

I opened my mouth in a huge yawn, thinking, I’ll start tomorrow.

Then the drifting snow suddenly entered my field of vision.

Snow falling from the sky. When the weather grew cold, snow turned into ice, and...

“......!”

A flash of inspiration struck me.

“That’s right! Ice!”

It was such an obvious fact, yet I had never really considered it before.

No.

In truth, I had completely forgotten.

“If I’m Father’s biological daughter, then I should have the power of ice!”

I had found something to do!

I stuffed my belly, which protruded like my chubby baby cheeks, back into my trousers and sprang to my feet.

If I share Father’s blood, that means I should be able to do it too, right?

With a power of my own, I could keep King Argen in check.

Even if an adult kidnapped me, I would no longer have to suffer helplessly!

“...But how do I use it?”

The problem was that I did not know how.

Judging by Calypse and Lucas, it seemed to manifest at birth and operate instinctively.

The original novel had mentioned something along those lines as well.

“Hmm...”

After pondering for a moment, I thrust out my palm toward empty air.

Then I clenched my backside and scrunched up my face.

“Nngh!”

Maybe an ice crystal would pop into existence above my palm.

“Nnngh!”

Or an icicle would burst out of the floor with a crack...!

Nothing happened.

This would not do.

“I’ll ask Father!”

Bang—

“Father! This Golden Seed has finished resting and shall now resume growing!”

I raced down the corridor and flung open the office door.

Then I gazed at Calypse with sparkling eyes—

“Oh? Ah, yes. Grow as much as you please.”

Father, who had been quietly working, offered that single blessing before returning his attention to his duties.

Everyone except me was living such a productive life. It was so unfair!

I pattered over to him and planted my hands on his knee.

“Father! Why don’t I have it?”

“Have what?”

“The power of ice! If I’m your biological child, shouldn’t I be a power holder too?”

Calypse paused.

Only then did he look at me with round eyes.

“You’re right.”

Judging by his expression, he had never considered it either.

Things had been rather chaotic since we returned.

For everyone except me.

“This conversation sounds rather interesting. May I join you?”

Knox, who had been seated at a small temporary desk, chose that moment to intervene.

I immediately held up the edge of my hand and answered,

“No. Anyone who isn’t a power holder is forbidden from joining the conversation!”

“What do you mean, forbidden? Knox, come here and think about it with us. Why hasn’t this brat’s power manifested?”

“Eep.”

Calypse responded to my teasing by roughly mussing my hair, then gestured for Knox to approach.

Knox pushed his gleaming white monocle firmly into place and replied,

“Hmm. Let us consider it theoretically. To prepare their bodies for generating ice, members of the Kreutz family are placed immediately after birth inside an ice chamber created through the power of ice. They spend several months there acclimating themselves to their power.”

“That’s right.”

“However, because of Lady Aisha’s exceptional circumstances, she never underwent that process. Therefore, in my personal opinion, perhaps her power is having difficulty manifesting because her body is not accustomed to temperatures low enough to produce ice...”

I recoiled in horror at Knox’s explanation.

“Gasp! Does that mean I’ll never be able to use my power?”