“Time to eat!”
Anna bounced over to the dining table, not noticing Mirrorheart acting strangely.
The pain was still flaring up, which made Mirrorheart fidget a lot, but since the meal was already finished, she sat down and was harder to notice.
Other maids did notice Mirrorheart acting off and glanced at her from time to time, but in the end they showed nothing.
“Good morning, everyone. I can finally sit at the table to eat. It’s not as good as under the table, but at least it’s better than not being able to sit next to Master Mentor.”
Although Loren had already explained the reason to them yesterday, Corolla still felt a bit out of place seeing Naclis acting so differently.
Before long everyone had gathered and breakfast began pleasantly.
At that moment Mirrorheart started frantically signaling Loren, urging him to increase the rate at which the pain drained away.
“……”
Loren was silent, but under Mirrorheart’s prompting he agreed to her request.
Mirrorheart suddenly couldn’t hold herself and dropped her chopsticks on the floor.
Everyone was already used to her strange behavior.
As always, Mirrorheart took a long time to pick the chopsticks up. Reflection Naclis was also here this time, and Loren instinctively wanted to push her away.
But thinking that Reflection Naclis could have seen it before, Loren instantly let it go.
It seemed Mirrorheart wasn’t solely to blame for her condition; Loren himself had made mistakes, and he suddenly felt guilty.
Still, since he was already there, Loren didn’t pull Mirrorheart away.
While Mirrorheart bent to pick up the chopsticks, Reflection Naclis suddenly gave Loren a meaningful look.
Under Loren’s gaze, she slowly pushed the chopsticks further to the ground:
“Oh no, why am I so clumsy? My chopsticks fell…”
“Bad!”
Now it was too late for Loren to pull Mirrorheart away, Reflection Naclis had seen it.
“……”
Loren was mortified. His hand was on Mirrorheart’s head; originally he had meant to push her out, but to Reflection Naclis it looked more like pressing.
At this point Loren had accepted it. After all, Reflection Naclis always hid in the shadows; she had probably seen this scene countless times.
But when Reflection Naclis came up to fight Mirrorheart for food, Loren couldn’t fully hold back. He pulled her out from under the table and straightened his clothes.
“Behave and eat…”
“Oh…”
Reflection Naclis obediently returned to her seat. Aside from Naclis herself feeling puzzled, no one else reacted strongly.
…
After the meal, Loren planned to rest a bit before taking Paqina to do research. Since they had free time anyway, Loren discovered Corolla’s talent and decided to tutor her while he had the chance.
“Corolla, don’t tidy up, come here. I’ll teach you something.”
“Y-yes…”
Corolla put down the plate. Remembering Mirrorheart’s earlier behavior, she began to overthink, and when she reached Loren she instinctively knelt.
“What posture do you want to teach me…”
Corolla’s tendency to fantasize was something Loren had gotten used to, so he ignored it and took out a book, tapping her head with it:
“Start by reading the book.”
“O-okay…”
Corolla excitedly opened the book. She had heard that maids had to learn some things before serving in bed, but when she flipped it open she was stunned—inside were obscure, hard-to-understand symbols.
“What… is this?”
The feeling was like watching a movie that suddenly cut to an unskippable advertisement for calculus right at the crucial moment.
“It’s magic. I found you have some magical talent. You can study magic, it’s better than nothing…”
Holding the magic book, Corolla thought about her childhood.
When she was little she fantasized about becoming a powerful mage, but life’s burdens forced her to give up that dream. She started working very young and never had a chance to test any magical talent she might have had.
This was the Gedlan Kingdom, not the Nofica Theocracy. Even if an ordinary person had magical talent, there were few chances to show it; most would lead a lifetime of mediocrity.
Luna had the opportunity to show her magic because of her family circumstances. Her family ran an inn, which was decent among commoners and allowed her to study magic without worrying about work.
Most people were like Corolla: they might die never knowing if they had talent.
At the moment she realized the book was a magic book, Corolla felt she should be excited, but instead she was a little disappointed.
Still, learning magic was ultimately a good thing, and Corolla decided to study it seriously.
As for the other matter, she decided to beg Mirrorheart—maybe Mirrorheart could help.
Corolla was not a witch; even with talent it was limited.
With Loren’s method she spent the whole morning learning just one first-rank Bountifulness spell.
Loren tried to let her skip the prayer step, but no matter what she could not successfully cast the spell.
In the end Loren accepted reality: she was just an ordinary person with a bit of talent.
If she had been raised by the Church from childhood, Corolla might have become a High-Ranking Mage or even possibly reached Ninth-Rank, but that opportunity was gone. Corolla had missed the best time to learn magic, so even with Loren’s training she could at most learn some self-protection spells.
Since Loren had already taught Corolla, he didn’t play favorites—he taught the other maids as well, but compared to Corolla they showed no real talent.
Flossie had some magical aptitude, but only a little; her whole life she would probably only reach Low-tier mage.
Seraphina was worse—she couldn’t channel magic at all; she had absolutely no talent, like Mirrorheart.
Even among ordinary people there were few who had zero talent. Those who couldn’t learn magic at first could usually, with effort, summon some magic.
“What a pity.”
Loren felt regretful. He had thought Seraphina had the best talent.
But this was understandable—Seraphina wasn’t a witch; she had a flawless appearance but lacked talent.
“All right, that’s enough for today.”
Loren glanced at his watch. It was already afternoon, and they had lunch in the meantime.
Quite some time had passed since the meal; it was time to start research.
Loren led Paqina into the laboratory, and Corolla immediately went to find Mirrorheart.
“Mirrorheart… I want to ask you something…”
Corolla hesitated for a long time, not sure how to say it. No matter how she thought about it, the request felt presumptuous.
She couldn’t just say, “I want to sleep with your lover,” right?
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