Glad I Broke It Then, Really
“Anyway, word about that incident spread quietly, and lately quite a few nobles have been requesting paternity tests from the Magic Tower instead of the temple. After all, the result is the same, and if something goes wrong, it’s easier to press the Tower than the temple, don’t you think?”
Holtdein was right. Even if the temple of the Goddess delivered an incomplete result, it would be difficult to openly question them afterward.
“Everyone just keeps quiet because they’re afraid of souring relations with the temple if they speak too plainly.”
“I see. Thank you for telling me, Holtdein.”
“It was nothing.”
Despite his words, Holtdein’s mouth stretched into a wide grin. Ever since the mage named Lucia arrived, Pay—who used to stay close to that overwhelmingly talented man—had been alone lately. The sight of her lost in thought with an Undine wrapped around her was breathtakingly lovely…
Gulp.
The mage, who had finally found his first love, hesitated for a moment. Wasn’t this the perfect chance to act like a man and confess his feelings?
If he just said “I… like you…”!
But the words “I like you” slipped out from her lips instead of his.
“I like it.”
“Huh? Gah…!”
Holtdein could only groan in dismay as he watched Pay suddenly stand up with a determined look. He had just stumbled upon an unexpectedly serious problem.
When she first came to the Tower, their heights had been nearly the same. She had been just a tiny bit taller, but they were practically even. And now…!
“Holtdein, I think I need to look into something. Thank you! Thanks to you, I’ve got a research topic to work on for a while.”
“S-sure…”
He couldn’t bring himself to stop her as she left. Once Pay was completely gone, he trudged to the cafeteria with a frustrated expression and placed an order.
“Add a bottle of milk to my breakfast every day from now on. The biggest one you have. Starting tomorrow.”
“Understood.”
I’m going to grow taller, no matter what! They say men keep growing even as they get older, right?!
Pay’s steps quickened as she drew closer to the truth of the past.
“Haa… haa…”
She had been far too careless. The family she had abandoned, the ruby pendant she had smashed in a fit of rage—those were one thing. But failing to even try to uncover the truth had been negligence.
The people of the Klein ducal house, Lord Cassel… No, this wasn’t the time for such weak thoughts. Even if she had given up on approaching them, she still needed to know the facts.
Pay returned to her room and sank into deep thought.
‘Let’s go back to the beginning. I don’t have many memories from when I lived in the temple with my nursemaid. I just remember being told over and over that I was a weak, sickly child. Was that really true?’
After she injured her head and grew up in Grace Monastery, nothing particularly unusual had happened. Even if she tried to blame it on her wounds having healed, no congenital illness or defect had ever been found in her.
Had they made a fuss simply because she was a noble daughter? But if there had been nothing wrong with her, then there was no explanation for why she had spent nearly five years after birth in the temple instead of the ducal residence.
Setting that aside for now, she retrieved the broken ruby pendant from deep inside a drawer.
‘Dot stole only the silk robe, yet she was still recognized as the daughter.’
There was one thing that bothered her most about this entire affair.
Where had this pendant actually come from?
‘Then why did they bother switching the ruby pendant in the first place? Did they decide this time that the pendant itself didn’t matter as long as they had the silk robe?’
The more she thought about it, the more suspicious a certain person and place became.
It wasn’t the Klein ducal house.
‘The temple… Saintess Capia…’
It was an incomprehensible domain. When the paternity test had been conducted in the past, how could Dot have been recognized as the daughter unless the temple had helped orchestrate it by letting Morgana answer in her place?
At the very least, they must have known about the possibility of tampering and deliberately turned a blind eye.
Yes. Every single thing that had happened to her, every terrifying scheme—
No matter how cunning Dot had been, it was impossible for her to have carried out this long, complicated process without being caught even once. The same went for all the times she had hired assassins.
Even if she hadn’t been discovered immediately, her tail would eventually have been caught, and she would have been driven into a corner.
‘Even if I generously assume they used that so-called Truth-Reading Statue on the silk robe instead of a person, it’s still suspicious. More than anything, this ruby pendant wasn’t just a simple token—it was a tool that completely suppressed my magic.’
If the Klein Duke had given her the pendant because he didn’t want his daughter becoming a mage…
Once he learned Dot was his daughter, he would surely have checked whether she had any magical talent.
Even if the temple had confirmed her as his child, something still didn’t add up. It wasn’t possible for someone’s innate magic to simply vanish just because their body grew.
Tiana’s magic was the key to realizing that the paternity test result had been wrong, or that Dot wasn’t his daughter at all.
The conclusion was that the Duke either didn’t know the ruby pendant existed or didn’t know what it did.
‘In that case, my ruby pendant wasn’t something the ducal house provided—it came from somewhere else. In the end… it’s the temple again?’
The deeper she dug into the past, the stronger the connection she felt to the temple and Saintess Capia.
And there was one more thing.
“…The silk robe that got dirty from rolling on the floor wasn’t even washed, but the ruby pendant was cleaned and sent along with it—by Tower Master Baroa.”
Pay arrived at a vast and terrifying realization.
‘I had it wrong from the very beginning. Baroa was the Tower Master at the time. There’s no way he didn’t know what that pendant really was. So he deliberately had it sent with me because he wanted me to awaken on my own?’
Why had he bothered to include the pendant, which carried such negative meaning?
‘If the first condition was for me to discover that the names Morgana and Morgan le Fay, and the reason I couldn’t use my innate magic, were all tied to the ruby pendant…’
Thinking of him suddenly eased the tightness in her chest.
There were countless unsolved mysteries, but there was only one key—and Pay had to find it herself.
She ran straight to Baroa’s room.
The firmly closed door swung open as if it had been waiting for her, and as always, Baroa was not inside.
But she didn’t feel lonely.
He must have foreseen that she would eventually return to this room!
Pay stepped inside and looked straight at the blue ice statue before declaring,
“Lord Baroa! I don’t resent you. No matter what the truth surrounding me turns out to be, I’m going to uncover it with my own hands. That’s what a mage does, isn’t it? We seek the truth!”
The blue ice statue stood proudly in its place.
“Whether you’re watching over me or wandering somewhere far away, I’ll definitely come find you. And I’ll tell you thank you.”
The silent ice statue could almost be seen as Baroa’s other self.
“I became a mage, just like the name you gave me! So I could carve out my new destiny.”
She had read it in an old grimoire.
Morgana. Morgan le Fay. Both names were those of mages born from water.
By giving her a new name, Baroa had left a clear hint that she possessed the talent to become a mage.
She smiled shyly.
“…I still don’t know if I’ll become a great mage. But I’ll do my best. I promise I won’t lose myself to the flames of anger. So someday, we’ll definitely meet again! I’m going to find you, Lord Baroa!”
There had been a time when she wondered if he might be Lord Lucia, but whether he was or wasn’t didn’t matter. She would find him no matter what.
Pay ran out without looking back. There was still so much she had to do.
Once her figure disappeared, the door to Baroa’s laboratory slammed shut on its own.
And the blue ice statue, as if its task was complete, developed fine cracks before shattering into countless pieces that scattered across the floor.
* * *
“Hmm…”
Pay left Baroa’s room and immediately entrusted the investigation of the broken ruby pendant to the researchers. The Magic Tower was full of people obsessed with research, so the results came back faster than expected.
“Where did you dig up this creepy old thing?”
“Pardon?”
The Fine Echoes had said it was definitely a powerful magic-suppressing tool.
“Ah, I meant it’s an antique. This is estimated to be a relic from several hundred years ago. The other parts of the pendant seem to have been replaced recently, but the gem itself is that old.”
“Really?”
“There are traces of a powerful spell embedded in the gem. It suppresses the user’s magic and only allows the fire-attribute magic stored in the ruby to influence them.”
“Then wouldn’t it actually help weaker mages?”
Pay’s eyes widened, but the researcher shook his head.
“No. Because the pendant dominates the user’s magic, they can’t use their innate magical abilities no matter what their mana affinity is. If someone wore this for a long time, they might even experience side effects like changes in appearance or permanently failing to realize they’re a mage.”
“They’d end up living as an ordinary human…”
“Exactly. There are even records from several hundred years ago showing this was used in the temple. They used it to suppress mages whose abilities went against the temple’s will.”
“……”
“It’s a despicable item to us. The gem is damaged now so it has no effect, but if it had remained intact, even someone with tremendous talent would have been forced to live as an ordinary person.”
“…So that’s what it was. Thank you.”
Pay took the item and said her goodbyes.
Now that she knew the truth about the ruby pendant, she placed the vile object back in its original spot.
Then she stared into the mirror Cassel had given her.
Setting aside Cassel’s appearance, her light pink hair didn’t resemble the Duke and Duchess of Klein—or even Morris—in the slightest.
This appearance, so completely different from theirs…
‘If the ruby pendant contained fire-attribute magic, then it explains why I have this unusual hair color. Maybe my hair color right after birth was different from now?’
Part of her almost hoped her suspicions were wrong.
If the temple—the symbol of peace and gentleness—had truly plotted and carried out such a scheme, the truth would be too horrifying to bear.
‘I wish I could find out whether any portraits were painted of me while I was in the temple.’
No matter the conclusion, there was one final figure who stood as the mastermind behind it all.
It wasn’t Dot—her former friend Dotricia. There had been an invisible, cunning shadow mage pulling the strings from behind.
‘Saintess Capia!’
The person she had been desperately thinking of was kneeling before the statue of the Goddess, quietly offering a prayer.