The duke and duchess Espine together with the general Victureo were discussing a rather pressing and important matter, well, at least for the general that is.
"...and hence the alliance between our two families would..."
"...?"
Suddenly, in the middle of the talk, duchess Misena turned her head towards the window furrowing her brows with
"My lady, was there something in my wording that you found disagreeable?"
General asked politely while looking between the duke and the duchess with concern.
Neither Espines nor Victureos were ever openly hostile towards each other but alas, the public, as well as other houses, considered the two houses to have directly opposite political beliefs - but that didn't mean that a mere mention of the alliance would cause the most distinguished and respected lady of the kingdom, known to give lessons in manners even to the royal family members, to break her character and straight-up turn away from the speaker!
"Please, excuse that rudeness, dear general - it's nothing concerning your offer. It's just that the children are using magic in the garden..."
She shook her head and returned to the conversation.
"Ah! I see! I'm sure it is nothing then, probably just my Grazio trying to impress your lovely daughter - that boy has real talent. He's already quite proficient with the basic spells, so I assure you that he had been taught by the best teachers that I could find. He knows all the safety measures to take with his element."
The head of the Victureo family looked so proud that it was hard to tell whether his original intention was to reassure the worried noblewoman or to boast about his own son.
"I'm glad to hear that, however..."
Lady Misena nodded and smiled benevolently, but then again she turned to the window with concern almost instantly.
"My Grazio a very well behaved..."
"Excuse me, gentlemen, I want to check what the children are up to."
The green-haired woman ended up interrupting him mid-sentence and excused herself, leaving the two men looking at each other in confusion.
"My lady...?"
"Not now."
As soon as the door closed Lady Misena invoked the wind enchantment and sprinted towards the gardens causing Mizoe who was standing guard by the door to shudder from the sheer amount of released mana that caused the air in the corridor to tremble as if in a heatwave.
Thanks to her magic Misena was so fast that she left afterimages.
If Miriette will work hard - she'll one day achieve an even greater degree of mastery over the wind element, but for now, the position of the strongest wind magician belonged to Misena alone.
Since her magic was powerful it had some uncommon qualities that any other run-of-the mile wind magician could not recreate.
Normally wind magic was best suited for increasing the speed of the caster as well as sending long-distance messages - but duchess Misena was able to develop a spell that allowed her to detect and identify magic in her vicinity.
That ability was strong enough to detect anyone using magic anywhere on the castle grounds.
She was in such a hurry exactly because she felt the unnatural fluctuations of her daughter's magic.
Miriette was scared and wasn't properly controlling her magic power making her spell unstable.
"!!!!"
Misena reached the gardens just in time to witness Zoemi pushing Miriette to the side and taking a fireball for her.
Where are all the maids and guards...!?|
The green-haired woman thought to herself while already raising her hand towards the black-haired boy screaming in pain from his flesh being cooked alive.
"..."
The first thing that she did was to silently invoke a spell that created a reverse cyclone around the black-haired boy - who lost consciousness due to the severe pain ā to suck out both the air and mana that were fueling the fire that took a liking to the poor child's body.
The reverse cyclone spell worked exactly as intended ā unlike the previous spells of young, terrified, Miriette, and the magic fire died out instantly.
"...what a mess..."
Misena released the spell so the boy inside wouldn't suffocate and breathed out seeing that he is still alive.
"!!!!"
"Mommy!"
When the wind spell erupted between them, Mariette and Grazio could only look at it in shock. Miriette immediately recognizes her mother's magic and cried out with relief once she saw her approaching.
"Sweetie...!"
Misena's enchantment was still active so she arrived at her daughter's side in the blink of an eye.
"I... I haven't done anything wrong!"
Seeing the duchess arrive, Grazio hid his arms behind his back and looked away trying to act innocent.
This shameless brat...!|
Misena thought but said something else.
"Go to your father. Now."
She gave an order and the red-haired boy wasn't stupid enough to question her and run to the castle as soon as he could.
"Mommy, you must help Zoemi!"
Miriette clung to her mother's leg and started drenching her dress with her tears.
"That awful boy was bullying me and he was bullying Zoemi too! And he wanted to fight Zoemi and didn't even ask him, and Zoemi won and then...! And then he hit him with fire and.. and...!"
"It's alright sweetie, everything will be okay now, mommy is here."
Misena patted her daughter's head to calm her down and used her magic to lift up the unconscious black-haired boy.
"Everything will be fine, come with me, sweetie."
Then she took Miriette's hand and walked back to the castle.
Misena had also sent a message to her husband to take the general and come down to the main hall.
As the two women were walking, and Zoemi was levitating by Misena's side as maids and knights who left their posts to fulfill the wish of the general's son was returning, carrying all the things that he wanted.
"!!!"
They all froze when they saw the duchess with the children.
"All of you, follow me."
They weren't sure what had happened but one look from the duchess Espine made them drenched with cold sweat.
"Sweetie, try to remember everything that happened, alright? In order and with details. You will have to tell daddy about it."
"...ye-yes...!"
Misena smiled at her daughter and the little girl made a determined expression and nodded, her eyes were still red from crying.