Chapter 210
Chapter 210
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 210
Chapter Title: The Mana-less Soul
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"The Howard Baron presents his greetings!"
"Ufufu~ Yes, it's nice to meet you here too."
The first time I came face-to-face with the young noble standing on the boundary between youth and boy, with his platinum blond hair and emerald eyes...
"......"
What I felt was strangeness.
It wasn't that he gave off an unsettling vibe from his very being, or carried the scent of a half-mad lunatic like my sister and I.
On the contrary, he radiated the strong impression of a gentle puppy—utterly harmless.
Yet, at the most fundamental level, there was an indescribable sense of otherness.
In common parlance, if someone lacks even the mana to handle the simplest spells, they're labeled "mana-less." But strictly speaking, every living being with a soul possesses mana.
This is an ironclad law of the world, applicable from newborn infants to tiny insects—the only difference is the amount each individual has.
The sole exception is when life ends.
Once the soul departs, it can no longer anchor mana to the flesh, and the body gradually loses the mana it once held.
A powerful mage's corpse might retain mana for years after death, but those deemed "mana-less" lose it within about three days.
Yet this young noble before me had a beating heart and steady breaths, but not a single drop of mana could be sensed within his body.
Was the being before me a corpse revived by necromancy?
No, that wasn't it—and that realization plunged me into confusion.
There was undoubtedly a soul nestled in that young noble's heart.
The soul's emanations were a bit unusual, but not abnormal.
It was a perfectly ordinary, vibrant soul.
Necromancy can only revive the flesh—what results is merely a mobile hunk of meat.
But if a soul resides in the heart, mana must exist in the body.
This defied everything I knew.
So what was this heterogeneous thing with no mana yet a living soul?
"......"
My grip tightened on the teacup.
Fear and curiosity toward this unknown entity swelled within me, setting my heart racing.
"Baron Howard."
Recalling my old promise with my sister, I scrutinized him intently.
"Yes, Your Highness? Please speak."
"Don't keep kneeling on the floor like that. Sit here."
Was this thing a threat, or merely a bizarre happenstance?
I needed to find out for certain right now.
_
About ten minutes passed.
In that time, all I'd gleaned was that Baron Howard was terribly weak to alcohol—and that as he got drunk, the already peculiar waves of his soul suddenly shifted dramatically.
A unique waveform defying comparison.
Something mimicking a human soul.
Or perhaps a grotesque chimera stitched together from various sources.
At certain moments, his soul's emanations diverged starkly from those of any soul in this world.
"Ahh~ Space-time..."
"...?"
The most alarming instance came while we casually discussed psychokinesis, just in case.
The moment "space-time" passed his lips, his soul radiated waves utterly unlike those of any human from this world.
And as a bonus, despite no formal magical training, he seemed to grasp the connection between space-time and psychokinesis.
"......"
This was the first such waveform I'd encountered since witnessing spatial distortions and mana flows.
A threat? Or my own overreaction?
Reason deemed this irregular situation dangerous.
It recoiled at the discomfort of an existence defying established common sense and norms, screaming to eliminate the potential variable.
Yet instinct insisted the baron posed no danger.
He was just your run-of-the-mill young noble, perhaps frailer than a puppy.
Had he no ties to the imperial family, I would have ignored it and moved on.
But this man had caught my sister's interest—he was the lover she wanted by her darling nephew's side.
A man likely to soon stand among the imperial ranks.
I recalled the duty I must perform as the condition for allowing him near.
"William Henry Howard."
I fixed my gaze on the baron, suffusing the room with mana until a faint blue aura shimmered visibly in the air.
"Yeees, Your Highneeess..."
Even someone with the barest grasp of magic would have sensed the mortal peril in that dense mana concentration and trembled violently. Yet the baron just grinned dopily in response.
Was he too drunk to notice?
Or pretending obliviousness to lure me into complacency?
Or did he possess the confidence to shrug it off effortlessly?
"What is your true nature?"
Unknown monster, how will you react to this?
"...Yees?"
The thing cloaked in human guise looked up at me with innocent eyes, tilting its head before stammering a reply.
"Williiam, Henry Howaaard... second son of the Hume Margrave... and I hold a barony..."
"Ha."
Daring to play dumb?
Fine then—let's see how you fare under psychokinetic crush.
"Hiiik...!?"
With a snap of my fingers, the baron slammed back into his chair as if crushed by a lump of iron.
"Y-Your Highness? What is thiiiis all of a suudden..."
"I asked what your true nature is."
"Yees...?"
"Williiam Henry Howaaard... a subject of the Empiiiire..."
His continued feigned ignorance finally scraped away at my patience.
"Don't toy with me!"
"Eek...!"
"You're not from this world."
"......"
His eyes widened.
"Hic...!"
Then, hiccuping, he stared up at me with eyes brimming with fear.
I didn't like his persistent frail act, but at least he'd realized playing dumb was futile.
"Be honest. Only then can I decide whether to kill you or let you live."
"K-Kill...? Hiiiek...!"
His face drained of color as he began trembling violently, his eyes shaking like trees in a gale.
"I-I umm..."
His lips quivered, voice hesitant.
"Your Highness... may I ask one question...?"
"Speak."
"If... if I'm not from this world... what do you plan to do...?"
"......"
A tacit admission of my suspicions.
Should I end him now?
No.
Even with his true nature exposed, he seemed less inclined to scheme than to resign himself in terror. I doubted he'd overpower me by force.
Better to gather more evidence before deciding.
"I'll have to hear your story first."
After some deliberation, I chose to listen a bit longer.
"That means..."
"If you're a threat to the imperial family, I'll kill you without mercy."
"Gulp..."
Squeezing his eyes shut and swallowing hard, he clenched his fists, lips quivering.
"As Your Highness suspects, I'm not from this world."
"...Then? What are you?"
"I'm a reincarnator from another world—someplace utterly different from here, carrying memories from there..."
"Another world and reincarnation... You mean like the spirit realm or demonic hells? And you're some bizarre creature—a spirit or demon possessing a human body?"
"N-No... that's not it. That world had no demi-humans, no magic, no divine power—just ordinary humans and animals living plainly... I'm human too..."
"Hmmm..."
An absurd tale.
No such bizarre world could exist, yet his eyes and voice rang with utter sincerity.
Was he simply mad?
"Leaving that aside, how did you obtain this new life?"
"I don't know..."
"Your soul crossed from another world, and you don't know how? Are you joking?"
It had already happened—whatever he did to cross worlds, he couldn't possibly be ignorant of it.
"In... in my world, this was utterly impossible too...!"
Yet he raised his voice indignantly, as if wronged.
Suddenly overcome with emotion, his eyelids fluttered as he blinked rapidly, tears welling up.
"And Your Highness... I got this new life... came to a world with magic and divine power...! But when I learned I had no talent for either, do you know how heartbroken I was...? I wanted to use magic too—not like Father or Mother, but even just like other nobles, to spark a tiny flame...! But this body can't do anything!"
"I-I see..."
His desperate, earnest gaze and furious tirade overwhelmed me, shattering the atmosphere I'd dominated until now.
"Then, what was your station in that previous life?"
"A civil servant... basically a low-level clerk in the bureaucracy, handling paperwork and odd jobs for the administrators..."
"Not some eminent scholar or priest?"
"I didn't even believe in gods... And by this world's standards, I barely graduated the academy—and I wasn't nobility or wealthy..."
Drooping his head in gloom, the baron muttered in a choked voice.
"So when I found out Mother and Father were nobles and mages... I was thrilled..."
"Ah..."
At that sight, my urge to press him further evaporated.
Just as my instinct had whispered.
This man was no threat.
I couldn't entirely rule out masterful acting, but for now, it felt safe to set aside my suspicions.
Because the sadness, grievance, and inferiority complex pouring from him were too genuine to fake.
Thus, he was harmless.
A being posing no danger—not to the imperial family, not even to a cat.