NOVEL NEXT Ch. 25
Meldor, who had been listening to us, tilted his head in confusion as he wandered around.
When our eyes met, he would widen his eyes, looking like a small animal puffing itself up.
“Curious?”
“Give me the letter!”
Then, glancing nervously at Sir Brooks, he corrected himself.
“I mean, please give it!”
Sir Brooks looked at his student with a complicated expression before gently patting Meldor on the shoulder.
“Thank you for your efforts, Lord Meldor.”
“What?”
“Today’s training will end here. We’ll adjust the schedule going forward.”
“Huh?”
“Thank you for your hard work, Sir Brooks. I’ll talk to Meldor, so you may leave now.”
“Yes, Lady Belladi. I’ll take my leave then.”
Sir Brooks patted Meldor’s shoulder again, as if acknowledging his hard work, and headed out of the training grounds.
Meldor looked bewildered by the gentle demeanor of his usually strict master.
“What’s going on?”
“You did well, Meldor. From now on, you won’t have to train so excessively.”
“… what?”
“Here, read this.”
I handed the letter to Meldor.
He snatched it up and quickly scanned the contents with his eyes.
I received your letter, Belladi.
I’ve been aware that Meldor’s training has been excessive compared to others his age.
Meldor is just a child, blindly following my words because I’m his parent.
… as you said, the most important thing is Meldor’s heart.
It wasn’t Meldor clinging to the sword, but perhaps me and Dohemia.
We should open up more paths for Meldor now.
Tell Sir Brooks to reduce Meldor’s swordsmanship training.
I leave the rest of the adjustments to you.
Meldor kept staring at the letter with his head hanging low.
It wasn’t even that long, so why wasn’t he saying anything?
I shrugged lightly and spoke up.
“Meldor, I want you to reduce your swordsmanship lessons and focus more on magic… are you crying?”
“Sniff!”
Meldor hastily rubbed his eyes with his arm.
“No, I’m not! I’m not crying!”
“Why hide it if you’re crying? You cried in front of me just a few days ago too.”
At my words, Meldor suddenly raised his head in anger.
“That was because you made me cry!”
“What? Me?”
“It was you! My sister made me cry!”
“Making you cry? That was just proper discipline our parents failed to give.”
“What kind of discipline is that? Aren’t you ashamed to treat your younger brother like that as a sister?!”
Meldor started bawling, no longer trying to hide it. And yet, even while crying like that, he shouted in frustration. He really had some energy.
I replied nonchalantly.
“I’m not ashamed at all. I would have been more ashamed if I had let you continue ignoring me.”
“I-I never ignored you!”
“Do I need to discipline you for lacking a conscience too?”
At my words, Meldor quickly shut his mouth. I watched him carefully as he tried to gauge my mood.
It was true that, under the guise of discipline, I had been too harsh on him. But honestly, I had never intended to discipline him in the first place.
That was something our father, who truly wanted to guide Meldor on the right path, should do. I only wanted to punish the brat who constantly ignored me and treated me like an emotional punching bag.
‘Actually, I feel like I should pat myself on the back for even trying to talk to him at first.’
To me, Meldor was practically a stranger, at least half of one.
Still, the reason I gave him a carrot this time was simply because he was still young.
‘It’s up to you from now on. Whether we go back to being family or become complete strangers.’
I looked at Meldor with a meaningless smile.
Meldor, not knowing what I was thinking, seemed to relax his guard a little and asked cautiously.
“Why did you send this letter in the first place?”
“About what?”
“Why are you doing something nice for me? You, no, my sister hates me.”
Meldor’s eyes were filled with his usual innocence as he asked.
Those eyes, which even resembled our mother’s, might be the reason our father softened towards him.
I tilted my head slightly.
“Who knows? Maybe I’m just a soft-hearted person?”
Meldor looked even more confused by my response.
It was a rare moment of honesty for me, but unfortunately, Meldor seemed confused.
Watching Meldor’s puzzled expression was rather amusing, but business was now over.
“You can negotiate with your teachers about the class schedule and report back. I’ll fully respect your opinion.”
With that, I concluded my words and left the training grounds. I could still feel Meldor’s gaze from behind, but I kept walking without turning around.
A few days later.
Meldor’s lessons significantly reduced the focus on swordsmanship and greatly increased the emphasis on magic.
Sure enough, once the class schedule was adjusted, Meldor’s hysteria noticeably subsided.
Then Sir Brooks came to see me privately.
-Thank you for helping me persuade the duke.
He came to express his gratitude.
It seemed he, too, was aware that Meldor’s worsening temper was due to the stress from swordsmanship.
‘Truly, a noble teacher.’
It was not that I disliked Zeppelin, but I thought it would have been fun to receive lessons from Sir Brooks.
As I was imagining Zeppelin kneeling in despair upon hearing this, I was reviewing the mansion’s winter budget when a maid approached me.
“Lady Belladi.”
“What’s the matter?”
“An invitation has arrived from the Imperial Family.”
“The Imperial Family?”
I opened the luxurious invitation envelope handed to me by the maid.
Inside was an announcement about a banquet being held by the Imperial Family to celebrate the first snow of winter.
After reading it, I looked out the window. The snow that had fallen overnight covered the garden in a peaceful and beautiful blanket.
“So, the winter banquet season is approaching.”
Winter was the worst season.
Countless commoners suffered from the cold and food shortages, while the wealthy nobles fled to the warm south. The situation was much worse in the northern region, where the roots of our Alton family lied.
Well, that was all in the past now.
One great emperor had overturned the entire landscape of the empire.
‘Grilica Kenuve Deckerdil.’
She was the late emperor who founded the Kenuve School.
***
As my memories from my past life returned, I realized one thing.
‘This is also just another world.’
When I learned about the history and background not mentioned in the original work, I came to think that this, too, was ultimately a place where people lived. Of course, unlike Earth,
According to history, the continent had always been a chaotic place due to wars. Magic was the ultimate means of attack and defense, capable of overwhelming a hundred enemies at once.
It was a time when bloodshed was constant.
However, 200 years ago, spirits appeared in the world and intervened in human wars.
[Stop repeating meaningless battles and disturbing the world.]
With the intervention of the spirits, all the nations of the continent were forced to sign a
Thus, the continent entered an unprecedented era of great peace.
‘A time fitting for a romantic fantasy world full of dreams, love, and hope.’
Of course, there were still monsters and other continents to be wary of, so one couldn’t be careless about military forces, but the era of chaos had ended.
Naturally, magic, once the most powerful means of attack, evolved into a scholarly pursuit. In this flow, magicians established their own independent research institutions, which became the modern-day Magic Tower.
The magicians in the Magic Tower occasionally accepted external commissions, but they mostly devoted themselves to personal research. From the beginning, the barriers to entry for magic were high, and it gradually became their exclusive domain.
Then one day, a figure with a completely different ideology from the existing magicians emerged.
-Magic has the power to enrich the lives of many people!
Until then, magic had focused on flashy and powerful attack spells.
She broke away from that and developed very practical magical techniques. And she combined them with the budding field of science.
It was a brilliant decision to create magical techniques instead of relying solely on magic formulas, and to combine them with science. Thanks to this, magic, which could only be engraved on jewels, began to take various forms and have diverse effects.
The historic first invention born from the union of magical techniques and science was none other than the
Thus began
‘The founder of magical engineering and the most revolutionary magician in history was none other than the late emperor Grilica.’
When magical engineering first emerged, the traditional magicians treated it as heresy.
But that perception didn’t last long.
Grilica was not just any ordinary magician; she was a noble member of the Imperial Family. Furthermore, many of the elders who led the Magic Tower were former combat magicians who had once been loyal to the Imperial Family.
Because of this, the magicians’ opposition was quickly quelled. In fact, some who recognized the potential of magical engineering actively cooperated with Princess Grilica.
‘Thus, magical engineering flourished, and countless inventions were successfully created.’
Among the inventions, the most successful and widespread were the water plumbing and heating systems.
Thanks to the new water and heating systems, the people of the empire could use water comfortably and spend what had once been the worst season, winter, in comfort.
At that time, Princess Grilica even extended these facilities to impoverished areas for the purpose of aid.
As a result, no one froze to death anymore, and hygiene was maintained. Diseases and epidemics significantly decreased.
Princess Grilica’s popularity among the commoners skyrocketed to unprecedented heights.
Until then, Princess Grilica had been largely insignificant, pushed away from the center of power.
But she didn’t let that popularity go to waste and began building her own faction.
‘She even aspired the throne.’
However, there were already three princes ahead of her.
As a result, there were many forces opposed to her, but the tide gradually turned in her favor.
It was only natural. At first, Princess Grilica allowed anyone to buy her inventions, but when she entered the power struggle, she permitted only her faction to purchase them.
Because of this, even among nobles, the gap between those in her faction and those who weren’t began to widen in their daily lives. The nobles who opposed her expressed great dissatisfaction with her monopolization.
But Princess Grilica dismissed their complaints with just one sentence.