How a Catastrophe-Level Magician Lives

There was a woman in the ballroom.

She was a young noble woman with blonde hair, wearing a red dress.

While everyone else was dancing with their partners,

She alone stood isolated by a wall of the ballroom, her head lowered and hands folded below her navel.

At that moment,
A noble man approached her and spoke to her.

Soon, he extended one hand to her, who was alone and isolated in the ballroom, with an incredibly charming and handsome smile along with his unseen face.

As if inviting her to dance.

The woman,
Eventually grabbed that hand in a daze──.
The man’s hair color was distinctly ‘blue’.

Thanks to Brother Albert’s considerate “Well then, I’ll be off! The rest is up to you young ones!” with a thumbs up, currently he and Aina were in the middle of walking side by side down the corridor.

“……”
“……”
Although neither of them said anything, it felt like an atmosphere of strange emotions rather than awkwardness.

“Ah, I guess we’ll part ways here.”

I was the one who spoke first.

“…Where are you going? Do you have something to do?”
I answered Aina’s question.

“Yes. I have something to do at the incinerator for a moment.”
“The incinerator?”
I nodded in response to Aina, who looked puzzled with a questioning expression.

“It’s an important matter. Perhaps the only clue that could definitely grasp this situation.”
“…I see. Alright. Be careful, take care.”
“…”

‘Be careful, huh…’

It seemed Aina had sensed something.
Because I had given her a rough explanation of some circumstances beforehand.

“Well then, I’ll see you later.”
“Okay.”

I couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry towards Aina.

Because after all, she was in the position of a guest I had brought, and even though she had said she wanted to come along first, it wasn’t basic courtesy or proper to leave Aina alone, who didn’t know anyone here, as if abandoning her.

‘I feel somewhat sorry to Aina, who’s in the position of my guest, in many ways. Since she’ll have to be here alone while I’m gone. I should think of something to make it up to her later.’

With that thought, I changed into a raincoat and went outside through the central door of the mansion.

What I was looking for was, as I had told her, a place near the family’s incinerator.

To be precise, it was a place where broken glass or discarded glass was collected.

‘It should definitely be there. What I saw then.’

What came to mind was a mysterious potion bottle I had seen when leaving the Head’s office earlier.

‘Glass usually just melts when heated but doesn’t permanently incinerate. Rather, it’s melted for reuse. So they probably haven’t processed it yet. Although someone might have taken it away or already buried it to hide it… If it was thrown away belatedly by the servants cleaning the mansion after the Head collapsed, there’s a very high chance it’s still here. It would be difficult to intercept and act conspicuously at this point.’

He was quick-witted.
And he was quite perceptive as well.

It meant he had a knack for grasping the cause and problems of a situation from a few clues.

Arriving at a place near the incinerator where glass was collected,

Rummage rummage.

‘Found it…!’

What he finally found, even while facing the rough wind and rain, was that mysterious potion bottle with a luxurious appearance that he had briefly seen through the door crack when leaving the Head’s office with Aina.

‘You never know. It’d be better to get away quickly before someone else comes here.’

As soon as he thought that, he moved his body and slipped away from the scene without anyone noticing.

Fortunately, the rough wind and rain made noise and somewhat blocked visibility, so he thought it would be difficult for anyone to discover him in this weather.

Soon returning to the mansion,
He took off his wet raincoat and carefully made his way to his room, taking care not to encounter anyone else, and finally returned to his room.

Closing the door, he immediately took out the mysterious potion bottle he had hidden in his breast.

Holding it in his hand, he lowered his eyes and thought.

‘This bottle. It’s the only clue that’s presumed to have some deep connection to the cause of the Head’s sudden collapse.’

Opening the lid closed with a stopper.

Pop.

It wasn’t completely empty; he took just one drop of the few drops remaining at the bottom and swallowed it.

Then.
Soon after.

“Ugh…!”
A strange heat and abnormal sensation was detected and occurred in his body.

‘As I thought, it was this. This was the cause. The cause of the Head’s collapse.’

He immediately sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and started to concentrate with beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

That phenomenon seemed similar to the symptoms of the collapsed Head.

‘Who was it? Who could have provided this to the Head so casually and made him drink it?’

Even while concentrating, one important question like that arose in a corner of his mind.

Soon, he succeeded in analyzing, neutralizing, and pushing out the force that had invaded his body.

‘It had this much effect with just one drop. How did the Head not notice this right away? Was there a separate reason?’

It was something he couldn’t know, not being the Head himself. However, he began to deduce the situation intelligently, examining it piece by piece.

‘…It seems he always ate some kind of neutralizer that matched this before drinking it. If so, there’s a high probability it was food. The time we visited then was just past noon. If he always ate an early lunch, it makes perfect sense.’

It wasn’t just one day.

‘The point when the Head collapsed was a few days after that incident. I don’t know when he started taking this, but it’s certain that the Head was made to consume this every day from before we saw him then.’

Quick situational judgment.
It was an ability he had naturally acquired while on the battlefield in his previous life.

There were even various battle tactics unique to the battlefield that incorporated brain attribute magic and water attribute magic.

It was an element he had no choice but to acquire and improve to survive until the end. As a bonus, it naturally made him more perceptive.

‘Who provided this potion. And if I question the chef who prepared the food the Head ate every day, I’ll soon know whether I want to or not.’

His judgment was quick.
Thoughts soon led to practice and action.

He who had been sitting still got up and moved.

To root out the culprit.
The cause and perpetrator who made the Head collapse.

Before opening the door to leave the room, the last figure that came to his mind was the image of his mother looking at the unconscious and collapsed Head with eyes of sincere worry.

That was the only driving force and reason for him to actively step up and move.

‘I will definitely find them. Those who caused my mother to worry and grieve like this…!’

He was someone who would step forward without hesitation when it came to matters related to family, his mother and younger sister Reina.

But.

Is the reason for acting so proactively really just because of that?

…It was something even he himself couldn’t know.

No, perhaps he was still pretending not to know on purpose.

A few days later.

“What on earth is going on? What’s this extremely important matter that made you call everyone here like this? And in this bedroom where the Head is, no less!”
“……”

The woman frowning as if displeased was none other than the first wife, Lady Orleans.

As the prickly lady said, several people he had called were gathered here now.

The one who had called them all and gathered them here.

Frey opened his mouth and spoke:

“To reveal one truth and a certain fact that everyone here must absolutely know.”
“What? What truth are you talking about? You didn’t call us for something useless, did you? Even if you’re the fourth son who doesn’t care about the family. You should know how busy ‘we’ are, right? You’re not foolish enough not to know even that much…”

As she said this, Lady Orleans’ glance was directed at Frey’s mother, the second wife Lady Rena, who was standing silently by the door.

“…Hmph! You’d better hope it’s not nothing! I won’t forgive you if it is!”

The one who just spoke was the second son, the red-haired Alcas.

He was also one of the people Frey had gathered here.

It was because Frey had sent a servant to deliver a message saying he had something important to say, that it might be a major family matter, so they must attend.

After looking around at the gathered people once, Frey looked at Lady Orleans, who had spoken first, and asked:

“Lady Orleans. Let me ask one thing. When you say ‘we’, exactly who are you referring to?”
“What? Are you daring to try and nitpick my words!?”
Looking at Lady Orleans, who was showing her temper with raised, angry-looking eyes,

Frey spoke in a cold voice:

“I already know everything, Madam. I will now inform everyone gathered here at this time. The cause of the Head’s collapse. And who planned and carried out such an act.”

At those unexpected words, everyone showed surprised expressions.
However, the one who showed the most surprised expression was none other than Lady Orleans.
Then Frey, receiving everyone’s attention focused on him, revealed a certain truth after a brief pause:

“It’s all because of this potion and that person who is currently in charge of the family’s important duties as the temporary proxy of House Phoenix.”

What he showed while speaking, taking it out from his breast, was an empty potion bottle.

And the person he pointed to was none other than,

“””…!”””
“Wh-What did you say? You crazy bastard…! You’ve really gone mad! How dare you try to insult and slander our mother without knowing your place!?”

It was the first wife,
That Lady Orleans.