* * *

After breakfast, Sarah called the chef and ordered a few things.

“Please prepare a separate meal for Oliven. I’ll bring it to him in a little while.”

Then Belluna approached and said.

“Master, I will do that.”

“It’s okay. I have something to tell Oliven.”

“Ah……”

Recalling the voice of her master who had warned Oliven in a cold voice in the secret room, Belluna quietly retreated. Sarah smiled and winked at the chef.

“I’ll take it later. I have something to say to the Duke.”

“Nanny, what about me?”

“Young Master Claude should go up to your room and prepare for class today.”

“……Ooh ung. Okay.”

Claude nodded calmly and climbed the stairs. When Sarah winked, May followed.

“So Duke, can you give me a little time?”

“Of course.”

At Sarah’s request, Ethan smiled softly and nodded.

“Can you look around the mansion on your own?”

“Don’t worry about us and go ahead.”

“Benjamin, just in case you’re wondering, you’re not allowed access to Young Master Claude. So you know.”

“Yes.”

Sarah, who was quietly looking at Benjamin answering, sighed a little and climbed the stairs with Ethan.

“I feel like I have four Young Master Claude to take care of.”

“Soon it will become one again.”

Somehow, he felt the will to do it. With that said, he walked ahead first, and Sarah followed behind with a short smile.

* * *

Ethan poured tea into Sarah’s teacup by himself. Warm tea with a little milk and two spoons of sugar. It was Sarah’s perfect taste.

“Thank you.”

It was easy to know her taste, which she had never told him before, as if it was natural. She seemed to have just dealt with three children who she had to look after, and now she felt like she was being cared for when she was with Ethan. She liked Ethan’s consideration for taking care of her first as if it were too natural.

“You look a little tired.”

Ethan reached out and gently stroked the corners of Sarah’s eyes.

“……I’m fine.”

Even with such a small act of his, Sarah’s memory flew to last night. Ethan’s pitiful face as he blinked slowly without noticing that the corners of his eyes were burning red. Even now, when she thought of it, her heart tightened, and she remembered her heart that had beaten so hard at that time. So Sarah tried to change the subject.

“My students will get in the way. Still, thank you for your understanding.”

Ethan was brilliantly protecting her disciples from the Imperial family even while she was unconscious. Benjamin, who was having a riot in the Imperial Palace, was moved to the Ambrosia mansion unnoticed, and Belluna and Oliven were found hiding somewhere in the capital and brought back. Aside from the disciples’ rebellion, avoiding the eyes of the Crombell Empire’s Imperial family would have been the most difficult thing.

“I know the Emperor is still keeping a close eye on the Ambrosia Mansion.”

“It’s okay. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t impossible for Ambrosia.”

Sarah smiled slightly as she looked at Ethan raising the teacup as if nothing had happened. He worked this hard only because they were Sarah’s disciples.

“I’m too soft on my disciples, right?”

“……It’s not like that either.”

Ethan said so but did not add anything special as if he was affirming. No wonder, because of their accident, Sarah took Ambrosia’s power head-on and nearly lost her life. If she wasn’t a magician, that is, even a great magician, she probably wouldn’t have been able to open her eyes forever. Where did Sarah’s benevolence come from, forgiving her disciples and saying it was her fault?

‘I can’t even say it bothers me because I’m living on her mercy.’

Ethan said as he raised the teacup and covered the bitter smile that appeared on his lips.

“You seem to have a great affection for your disciples.”

“That’s right, I have an illusion that I raised each and every one of them.”

As Sarah said that, she continued, waving her hands in fear that Ethan might misunderstand her.

“Ah, of course, I’m not saying that I really raised them! But……, I feel that way because I’ve been watching those children the closest until they do their part.”

“I don’t think there’s much age difference with your disciples.…. How did you come to meet them?”

“Ah.”

At Ethan’s question, Sarah smiled softly as she recalled that time.

“Shall we talk in order of age? First of all, Belluna is actually one or two years older than me.”

It was when Sarah went on a trip with Dieline that she met Belluna. There was a villa owned by Dieline in the north, and it was a place with good scenery and coolness. Located at the top of the mountain, the villa showed large and small villages under the mountain at a glance. Although it was infested with bandits, Dieline said they would be safe because they would not dare to touch the nobles. However, at that time Sarah thought, which of the villages seen in the distance would be invaded by bandits that night.

“There were bandits in a small village, and houses were burned down and many people were dead.”

“That’s terrible.”

When Sarah looked down from the villa, Belluna’s village was shining beautifully. Even in the middle of the night.

‘Look at that, Sarah, I think stars fell in the mountains.’

Dieline smiled brightly when she saw it, but Sarah was so horrified by that pretty red light. When she went, Belluna’s village was already in ruins.

“Belluna was the only one who knew how to use a sword there. At first, she tried to protect those she loved, later tried to get revenge, and eventually fought to survive.”

She survived until the bandits eventually gave up and left the village. Although she was such a strong woman, Belluna’s hair, which was black when they first met, turned white while Sarah took care of her.

“Belluna had a talent, a very dazzling talent. Even at a late age, I knew she had what it takes to be an excellent magician.”

Sarah reached out to Belluna, and that was how they stayed together in the magic tower. Belluna had a strong sense of responsibility, justice, and a strong will to learn. As she learned magic from Sarah and gradually realized more about her magic, Belluna’s white hair, which was pure white, changed to silver as if starlight was flowing. As she looked at it, she arbitrarily thought that Belluna was overcoming her wounds.

“She was a great motivator for Benjamin and Oliven, as well as being the eldest in control of those two children. I’m very grateful to have a disciple like her.”

“Certainly, unlike Sarah’s other two disciples, she was a communicator.”

Ethan countered Sarah’s words but subtly appealed to the fact that the two other disciples did not communicate.

“Right? Sometimes when it comes to my problems, I have a childish side.…….”

The Great Elder of the magic tower had three disciples, but they had no rationality. It was a word that came down as if it were a natural statement in the magic tower. Still, it was Belluna who grabbed the reins of Benjamin and Oliven, who easily lost their reason and ran wild every now and then. Until the very end, as long as Belluna was holding onto the string of reason, Sarah’s disciples did not cause any major accidents. However, the only problem was that when Belluna, the last remaining string of reason, lost her rationality, even Sarah couldn’t handle it.

“She’s a good child though.”

“I can feel that you rely on her a lot.”

She was trying to be strict, but nevertheless, there was an affection that could not be hidden. Sarah’s azure eyes, telling the story of her disciples, fluttered like the wide sea and sparkled as if they were under the sun. They were so beautiful that, on the contrary, something dark and dirty squirmed deep in Ethan.

‘Will be stolen.’

An unidentified voice rang out in his head. He had a headache with a throbbing sensation. However, the more he felt that sensation, the darker Ethan smiled. Then he calmly, poisedly, and quietly arranged the order.

‘If I get rid of Belluna first, the other two will be easy.’

It was the order of expulsion of the disciples who were trying to remain in his mansion somehow.