thefinalcinderella6-7 minutes 10.07.2022

She turned around at the eloquent voice.

Bright came back to Wisteria with a serious look on his face.

“Are you alright!? Are you hurt…”

“I-I’m fine. It’s you who I’m worried about.”

The anger that had been swelling within her suddenly stopped, and Wisteria looked at Bright’s whole body closely.

There was not even a single scratch. She was inwardly relieved.

She turned around with a start, just as she was starting to relax. She looked to where Kenneth had been and saw that he was no longer there.

He was leaving from the exit of the hall with several men who seemed to be his cronies.

Wisteria pursed her lips tightly.

She wanted to denounce them, but she had no evidence they caused this incident.

As she felt a wave of gloomy anger in her heart, Bright suddenly took her hand.

Startled, she turned her gaze back to him again. Her palm was being stared at by golden eyes. A hand that seemed to suck out the fire.

“You saved me with your magic, didn’t you?”

After murmuring those few words, his long finger gently traced her palm. The sensation through the glove tickled and at the same time sent a slight shiver down Wisteria’s spine. Her cheeks burned.

“Oh, um―”

It wasn’t such a big deal. It wasn’t what you would call magic. She had only absorbed the magic. That was the only thing Wisteria could do.

But Bright’s gaze became gloomy and his brow furrowed in bitterness.

“I’m sorry. I accompanied you in order to protect you, yet…”

——I couldn’t do anything.

Wisteria could hear what Bright didn’t say. The normally cheerful Bright was now tormented by the dark feelings of not being able to use magic.

Wisteria felt a quiet anger at the fact that Bright was being hurt, just as Kenneth and the others had intended.

——Kenneth and the others weren’t seriously trying to harm Bright.

They must have done this just to show him that they were incapable of using magic at a time like this.

Wisteria tried her best to smile brightly.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m perfectly unharmed, and I don’t think anyone else was hurt, yes?”

The melancholy wasn’t immediately cleared from the living jewel’s face.

But with a hint of sadness, he looked at Wisteria with a gentle smile.

“You’re amazing. You really are–like a moon goddess.”

There seemed to be a hint of innocent envy mixed in with the praise. An honest envy for being able to use supernatural power. It seeped into Wisteria as sadness.

——The only time that a shadow was cast over Bright’s face with a sense of inferiority was when he was confronted with his lack of magic.

(…I have to do something about it.)

The research on the “Land of Grey Dawn” was for her own desires. To extend her hand to Bright.

——However, those feelings of wanting to shake the shadows off Bright, who had this look on his face because of his lack of magic, was the beginning of everything.

The capital of the Kingdom of Marcialle was a land that had developed around the royal palace where the royal family resided, expanding in a circle as its population grew.

Just southeast of the palace stood an old mansion. It was a large three-story building.

It was said to have been built by a nobleman, but now it was not frequented by nobles and their servants, but by people with no discernable connection to the place. Often given unflattering names by gossip-mongers, it was, however, a respectable laboratory.

It was because of her regular visits to this laboratory that Wisteria was often unfavorably called a “vamp” or “wicked woman.”

Today again, Wisteria visited the mansion early in the morning and shut herself up in a corner room on the third floor.

In the room, which was probably once a study, a long table had been placed instead of a study desk, and various instruments were laid out on the table. Plants and a black sand-like substance filled transparent jars.

If one looked closely, one could see that none of the contents of the jars couldn’t exist in this world.

Wisteria, the daughter of the Count of Vatue, now wore her black hair tied up in a tight knot, and she was dressed in a pair of tight-fitting pants and a vest, similar to a riding outfit. On top of this, she was wearing a thin robe-like garment.

The dress and accessories worn by a noble lady would have been completely out of place here.

Wisteria’s light purple eyes looked at the long, narrow tubes neatly arranged on the long table. They were all filled with a black, floating sand-like substance.

In addition to Wisteria, there were two other men in the room, both wearing thick glasses and similar robe-like garments. Here, they were exempt from the social etiquette that ladies of marriageable age shouldn’t be alone with the opposite sex without a chaperone. Because of that, she had to be prepared to be disparaged once she stepped out of the laboratory.

“Benjamin, if you please.”

Wisteria said to one of the men. Benjamin Labra, looking a bit sleepy, nodded and gently held up a hand.

And then, a tube at the far end reacted. The black sand in the tube moved around actively like it was being blown by a strong wind, and then it sparked and disappeared.

The black sand in the next tube became active for a moment as well, but there were no sparks. Also, the subsequent tubes didn’t react.

Wisteria, who had been watching intently, let out a quiet breath.

“Just as we thought…the miasma in the ‘Land of Grey Dawn’ seems to be getting thicker.”

“Yes, quite…It’s more than anticipated if so little interference created magic.”

Benjamin replied to Wisteria with a bitter look on his face. The other man next to him also had a difficult look on his face as he folded his arms.

Earlier, Benjamin had held up his hand to generate a tiny bit of magic. But the miasma in the tube had reacted instantly, turned into magic, and disappeared.

The three people in the room were silent, each deep in thought, when the man next to Benjamin spoke up.

“…To think that the ‘guardian’ will be selected again…”