HSTYM 03

Chapter 3

Herace froze on the spot, a shiver running down her spine as she watched the scene.

The five lumps of mana gradually increased in number, bouncing wildly around the garden like rubber balls. The boys and girls tried everything to avoid them. Some hugged tree trunks, while others grabbed each other and used one another as shields.

“Good. You’re doing well. The last three people remaining will each receive a pouch of the finest jewels.”

“The last three people remaining will each receive a pouch of the finest jewels.”

Jewels?

Herace frowned deeply at those words, but the eyes of the playmates who had arrived earlier suddenly changed.

They didn’t hesitate to sacrifice each other to get the jewels. Some even pushed the child standing next to them away like bait to draw the mana lump toward someone else.

The children who managed to avoid them were at least lucky. Those who were hit by the mana lumps were lifted into the air against their will and cried in fear.

“Young Master.”

The butler, who had been calmly watching the scene, approached the boy with the same polite attitude he had shown Herace and bowed.

The boy didn’t even turn to look at him.

“Miss Herace Lorca has arrived. She is your new playmate.”

Do I have to join them too?

Herace’s face turned pale.

She had thought she had come to take care of a sickly young master, but now it seemed she was about to become a laboratory mouse for a bad-tempered magician.

“Is this Herace Lorca?”

The boy turned toward Herace with a beautiful face full of laughter and slowly looked her up and down.

“What? I thought you were a boy because of your name… You’re a girl.”

For some reason, Herace immediately became annoyed and opened her mouth.

“Is there a problem?”

“No.”

With those words, his interest in Herace disappeared.

He seemed much more interested in hitting the children with the mana lumps. There were now fewer than ten children left.

“More importantly, why don’t you join them over there?”

“What?”

“You’re lucky because you’re joining near the end. I’m going to give that pouch of jewels to the last three people remaining.”

The boy spoke with a sweet smile, and the remaining boys and girls glared fiercely at Herace.

They seemed unhappy about the appearance of a new and unfair rival.

Herace flinched and stepped backward when she met their fierce eyes.

They all looked like they were around Herace’s age at most, but they seemed quite used to competing like this.

Herace almost snapped at them, but she quickly calmed herself.

He was still the only young master of the family her father served. She couldn’t simply lose her temper with him.

“Why would I receive that?”

“It’s a present. Friends give each other presents.”

“I don’t think this is the right way to exchange presents.”

“The right way?”

The boy curled the corners of his lips as if he had heard something very funny.

Then, in the middle of their conversation, he suddenly threw one of the mana lumps at one of the playmates.

The boy saw the black mana shooting toward him with a sharp sound and panicked. He grabbed the girl standing beside him and used her as a shield.

But the mana avoided the girl and attacked the boy standing behind her.

“Aah!”

The boy’s body slowly began to rise into the sky after being hit by the mana.

“No! I don’t want this! Help me!”

As his view rose above the height of the huge trees, his terrified voice echoed through the garden.

Yet none of the servants or playmates tried to stop Xenon Lianeric.

Herace looked up at the sky and saw several children already floating high above.

“They’re the losers.”

Xenon, who had followed Herace’s gaze upward, spoke.

When Herace flinched in surprise, he gently curved his eyes into a smile.

“I think you’ll be very good at this game. What do you think?”

“……”

“If you’re not confident, I can give you a little advantage.”

“I don’t need it.”

Herace answered firmly.

She came from a wealthy enough family that she could have snapped at him and asked what meaning such jewels could possibly have.

But even if she hadn’t, she didn’t want to show such an ugly side of herself by becoming blinded by a reward like an animal.

Especially because the boy was enjoying watching that ugly behavior as entertainment.

“I’m not interested in this strange game. I only came because my father ordered me to…”

“To play with me? But what can I do? This is how I play.”

Xenon grinned mischievously.

Herace bit her lip in frustration.

She hadn’t come here to become this bad-tempered young master’s toy.

No, if she thought about it carefully, that was technically what she had come for.

But she didn’t want to be pushed around like a toy.

If she had to be controlled by someone like this in exchange for skipping embroidery lessons, she thought it would be better to return home and tell her father that she would rather go back to her boring embroidery lessons.

“Do you really enjoy playing such a pathetic game?”

“A pathetic game?”

“I know very well how incredible your mana is, Young Master. But even if you show off your power like this, no one will look up to you as someone important.”

“I don’t care about other people.”

“Is that really all? There are more than a dozen playmates you’ve called here, but it doesn’t seem like a single one of them has opened their heart to you.”

Herace spoke with a mocking smile.

One of Xenon’s eyebrows slowly rose.

For the first time, the smile disappeared from his eyes as he looked directly at Herace.

She forced a smile while repeating to herself,

So what are you going to do just because you’re looking at me?

“Why do you play a game like this in the first place?”

“Because it’s fun.”

Unlike his pitiful circumstances, Xenon was truly a once-in-a-generation genius who had been born with the strongest mana among all the Dukes of Lianeric in history.

But such powerful strength came with a price.

The more mana he used, the greater the damage his body suffered.

The damage that came whenever Xenon used his mana had made his personality sensitive and eccentric.

Herace had heard many stories about how unusual the young master of the Lianeric family’s personality was, but she had never imagined that he would play with people like he was hunting rabbits.

“You enjoy watching children cry and scream?”

She asked in disbelief, but without even waiting for Xenon’s answer, she put a hand to her forehead and shook her head.

“No, I don’t even want to know. If serving the young master I was ordered to serve means doing something like this, then I’ll be going home.”

“What makes you so different?”

“At least I know how to treat people differently from animals. Just like how I’m showing you the minimum amount of respect right now.”

The only reason someone as bad as an animal is being treated like a human right now is because of my insight and patience.

It was a shame she couldn’t say that directly.

With a deep sigh, she turned around.

Her cold gaze was directed not only at Xenon but also at the children competing for the jewels.

“You’re leaving now?”

“Should I stay here and fight those kids for the jewels?”

Herace sarcastically snapped at the butler and maid who approached her as if trying to stop her.

Then she completely turned her back on Xenon.

“I order you to bring the carriage immediately. I don’t want to stay in a house like this even for another moment.”

“Miss!”

One of the maids shouted loudly, but Herace wasn’t afraid at all.

Compared to the son of a duke who has been abandoned, being the daughter of Viscount Lorca, who even has a position in the royal palace, is a hundred times better. I have nothing to be ashamed of.

She glared around as if she were ready to start shouting if they didn’t send her away immediately.

Then a soft voice came from behind her.

“Just let her go.”

It was Xenon, who had been silent until now.

“But, Young Master…”

“I said let her go.”

“Did you hear him?”

Whatever the original story was supposed to be, spending time with these idiots was worse than attending boring embroidery lessons.

At least embroidery left her with something afterward.

But spending time playing with Xenon Lianeric left her with nothing except exhaustion.

“…Understood.”

The butler backed down and guided Herace along the path she had come from.

Herace walked away proudly, but she secretly shrank her neck whenever she looked at the mana lumps still floating in the air, afraid that one of them might suddenly fly toward her.

Fortunately, nothing bad happened while she rode the carriage provided by Lambert Mansion back home.

The bad thing happened the very next day.

During a boring tea ceremony lesson, Viscount Lorca suddenly rushed in with a surprised expression and grabbed Herace.

“Herace! The young master is looking for you again today!”

Herace was stunned.

So was the tea ceremony teacher.

“Viscount?”

“Oh, Lady Ijison. I’m sorry about this. Would it be all right to end today’s lesson here?”

“What?”

“I’m truly sorry, but I have some news I need to tell my daughter right now.”

He seemed so excited that he hurriedly asked the tea ceremony teacher for permission and grabbed both of Herace’s shoulders.

“Herace, can you believe it? He personally chose you and asked for you today!”

“Really?”

Is he crazy?

I embarrassed him that badly yesterday, and he’s calling me again?

And seeing her father so happy about being chosen made her feel strangely uncomfortable, as if she were an item displayed inside a glass case.

Herace’s head was being shaken back and forth like a doll because Viscount Lorca kept shaking her shoulders.

She grabbed her head and calmly answered,

“But I’m in the middle of my tea ceremony lesson.”

The tea ceremony teacher had been sitting there with an awkward smile, but when Herace pointed at her, she said they could talk comfortably and left the room.

Once the teacher had left, Viscount Lorca became even more excited.

“Today’s lesson is over. Your job is to go to the young master right now!”

“Dad, yesterday you clearly said it would only be during my embroidery lessons three times a week.”

The embroidery lessons were held every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Since she had visited on Monday yesterday, there was no reason for her to go today.

“That…”

“And I actually have something I wanted to tell you today. I don’t want to go to Lambert Mansion.”

“What?”

It was already surprising enough that Xenon had specifically asked for Herace.

But now Herace, the person he had chosen, was declaring that she didn’t want to go.

Viscount Lorca couldn’t close his open mouth.

Herace kindly closed his jaw for him and smiled as she replied,

“That young master isn’t in his right mind, Dad. If you tell me to go there one more time, I’ll tell Mom everything.”