* * *

Outside the Imperial Palace, Oliven sat in a deserted alley avoiding people who came out to the streets to enjoy the banquet hosted by the Imperial family. Belluna looked at the circumstances of the street and said as she entered the alley where Oliven was.

“The Imperial family is moving faster than I thought, Oliven.”

“I know. I thought it was too easy.”

The magic stone, which was deliberately intended to be delivered only to the Third Prince, was immediately reported to the Emperor. Then, they immediately closed all the doors of the Imperial family and sent guards and knights to the streets under the pretext of a security crackdown to find a man with olive hair and a hood.

“If it was Master, she would have figured it out right away the moment she saw the magic stone. If she just checks that, she can be really sure……!”

Oliven swallowed his disappointment and tore his hair off. Originally, he planned to hide naturally in the Stenia Hall and find his master using the magic stone as bait, but it was ruined.

“So, why are you approaching the Third Prince?”

“I mean, he looked the easiest. People who have droopy eyes are…… I didn’t know he could be such a quick-witted person.”

“Ha……”

Belluna sighed and shook her head. Then she asked, casting a skeptical look at Oliven.

“The words of the First Prince, can we trust them? You said he was crazy.”

“If you’re not sure, what else will you do?”

“……”

“He claimed that the Duke of Ambrosia made him like that with a cursed power, and I had smelled that power from the First Prince.”

“Even so, there is no guarantee that the person who came in as Young Lord Ambrosia’s nanny was Master.”

“That’s! But……”

“You could be putting the wrong person at risk. What if, by mistake, the magic stone breaks even before Master finds it?”

“That’s why I wrote something down……”

Oliven glanced at Belluna. Belluna somehow thought that she was very familiar with it. It was as if he knew his fault before being scolded by their master, and she was skeptical about it…… After thinking that far, Belluna asked with a frown.

“What did you do to the magic stone?”

“That, you know…… Remember the last time I said I used up two magic stones?”

“Yes.”

“I put the two together to improve durability.”

“……What?”

At Oliven’s words, Belluna’s eyes widened.

“Then the power within it may multiply by several times, but you still did such a thing?”

In fact, there was no such thing as a total amount of power contained in the magic stone. It was because there was no limit to the power that satisfactorily ate up the life force. The reason Sarah had to divide such power into magic stones one by one was because she had to control the speed at which that power sucked up life force.

“On the day the magic stone breaks, its power will try to consume everything around it. Twice as fast!”

“I know, I know! However, once Master finds the magic stone, she will take care of it. Until then, it means that the magic stone is made stronger so that it can hold up without breaking.”

“Oliven, there’s one person that the First Prince talked about. The owner of that power.”

“Yeah, why?”

“Have you forgotten the characteristic of that power that Master said? If there is someone with the same power, it’ll resonate and increase its power.”

“What does that have to do with……, ah.”

Oliven opened his mouth as if he remembered something he had forgotten for a moment. The source of the power contained in the magic stone he had left at the party was right there. The cursed man that the First Prince spoke of, Ethan Ambrosia.

“Ah, crap.”

Only then did Oliven realize what his mistake was and bury his face in his hands.

“If it’s next to him, its durability will be useless. Gradually, it will be drawn to his power and the sealed power will fluctuate.”

“……Uh uh, I know.”

“Bring it back right away.”

“I’ll collect it, I’ve taken measures just in case.”

Oliven emphasized the presence of the mana thread extending out of his grasp with a gloomy, sunken face. Then, a thread resembling Oliven’s olive magic appeared. The thread that soared toward the sky stretched toward the Imperial Palace.

“In this way, the mana thread is connected to the magic stone.”

Oliven, who was shaking while showing a mana thread, abruptly stopped talking and hardened his expression.

“……Oliven?”

When Belluna called to him as if puzzled by the unusual sign,

“Kuheok!”

Oliven choked up and vomited blood.

“Oliven!”

Belluna ran to him in surprise, and at the same time, Oliven fell forward.

“What’s going on? Did something happen to the magic stone?”

“Mas. Master……”

“Master what!”

Oliven groaned and spit out blood, clenching Belluna’s arm. Then he looked up at her with his bloody eyes and said.

“The mana thread I tied up……, Master has burned it down.”

“It means that the magic stone is broken, or that Master has removed it. Which one is it, Oliven?”

“It’s broken, it’s broken, but Master is fixing it……, heok!”

Oliven staggered in pain once more, bleeding out. His hand, which was holding Belluna, trembled. Oliven couldn’t even scream at the pain that seemed to eat him from the inside.

“If you’re like this, Master by now……”

“Benjamin, call Benjamin. Something’s weird. Something’s wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“It’s not the way Master has been dealing with that power. She didn’t suppress it and burned it down!”

Oliven screamed with a suffocating breath, trying to get himself up anyway. His face was very pale and tired, not just because he vomited blood. Belluna quickly cast a recovery spell on him. Oliven’s breath, which had gotten steeper as the magic pouring from her became thicker and more numerous, gradually found stability. As soon as his body recovered, he jumped out of his seat and got up.

“Hurry up and call Benjamin, prepare your recovery magic, too!”

“What happened. What happened to Master?”

Belluna urged Oliven with frustration. Among the disciples, Oliven knew best about the power that their master had been studying. Because Oliven’s mana was best suited to do explorations, Benjamin and Belluna put Oliven first in tracking that power. Had she known he would have caused an accident like this, she would never have left it to him, no matter how long it took.

“In order to calm the overflowed power, you have to memorize the spells while suppressing the mana. It’s not something that can be done quickly.”

Oliven, restless, raised his nails and began to scratch himself. His aimless gaze turned to Belluna, who was completely pale.

“Be, Belluna what should I do? What should I do?”

“Calm down. Calm down and explain properly what’s going on!”

Belluna shouted as she grabbed his arm and separated Oliven, who was running toward her. Oliven’s eyes were drenched with tears before Belluna grabbed him by his shoulders.

“It seems that Master received that power through her body. Until now, she had given away the life force of the other body……!”

At Oliven’s words, Belluna’s face hardened terribly. Now the whole situation was pictured in her mind.

“That power is eating up the vitality of Master, not the other body!”

“If it is the combined power of the two magic stones, by now, Master is……”

Belluna was unable to continue her words and shut her mouth firmly. Of course, she had never experimented with a magic stone that had it power doubled. At that time,  the power fell asleep only after eating up the vitality of dozens of monsters.

“We have to go to Master, hurry to go to Master!”

“Hang in there. Oliven. There’s still Benjamin in the Imperial Palace, and if something happens to Master, he’s not the one to just leave it alone.”

“Ha, haa……”

Hearing that Benjamin was still in the Imperial Palace, Oliven collapsed to the floor as if his legs lost all of their strength.

“Ha.”

Belluna sighed heavily and looked down at the trembling Oliven. She knew those guys would make an accident because they had a few screws loose when something related to their master, but she didn’t know they were going to make things go this much wrong like this. Even if she wanted to check their master’s safety right away, it was unreasonable to take Oliven, who was being looked for by the Imperial family.

“Belluna……, what if Master hates me?”

Oliven asked with tears in his eyes. There was no focus in the eyes that shook aimlessly. Belluna said, hitting Oliven’s head hard.

“Before that, think about Master’s well-being first. You damn jerk.”