I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 18: When she became a young lady (2)

It was the day of the annual, royally organized noblemen’s social gathering.

It was also a place where the royal family and high-ranking nobles gathered to talk about various things, and behind the scenes, a battle of numbers took place over how to attract the other party to their faction.

It was a highly politicized event, and it was still too early for me at the age of ten.

So, after a brief greeting to the visiting dignitaries, I headed up to my private room on the fourth floor to retire a little early.

Or rather, I was going to, if not for the presence of an unwelcome visitor already in my room.

“Ah, Alex. Are you done with the greetings already?”

I sighed softly as I saw her lying on my bed in my room, reading with such nonchalance.

“I didn’t see you at the exchange, but you were in my room.”

“Yes.”

The answer was shameless and pure.

“I understand that many nobles with important ties to Ariana’s family attended today’s exchange meeting

“I asked my father if I could go in first, since I’m tired, and he said I could if I wanted to.”

“Ha.”

Somehow, a picture began to form in my head.

Her father, Sir Dominic Anastasia, was a doting father figure who would do anything Arianna asked.

Normally, Arianna’s mother, Duchess Natasha, would have reprimanded him, but she couldn’t reprimand her child in front of so many people, so she had to agree.

Or perhaps she decided that it was better to keep the unpredictable young lady tucked away in a private room with a few books than to let her loose in the main hall.

“Why my room, by the way?”

“The guest rooms are another ten minutes’ walk from here, and I don’t like the palace.”

“Even if that’s true, there are a lot of guests here today, and my room is….”

“Normally, you didn’t say anything when I came in. And the books I read while lying on the bed in Alex’s room are the ones that stick in my mind the best.”

Even though she’s only ten years old, I still expect her to keep a basic distance between the sexes.

Especially on a day like today, when we have a lot of outside guests, it would be more embarrassing for me and her if we were caught.

I was confused by her attitude, as she had made ridiculous suggestions about breaking up with me before, only to close the distance again a few months later.

Is she purposely being unpredictable to annoy me, or is she really a tomboy with a heart of gold?

“Do you want to lie down with me?”

“…No problem.”

Declining the offer, which once again baffled me, I watched wordlessly as she flopped down on the bed and read.

Her calves bobbing up and down and her dress fluttering, she seemed to have no regard for the opposite sex.

If this young woman were to become my wife in the future, I wondered if the kingdom of Leavrov would be safe.

That was at least a dozen years in the future, but it was a disturbing thought that I couldn’t help but worry about now.

“Oh, right.”

Arianna closed the cover of the book she was reading and pushed herself out of bed.

“Actually, I developed a new spell a while ago, and I’d like to show Alex.”

What other magic had she developed?

Even I, who knew little about the workings or nature of dark magic, was quite intrigued by Ariana’s newest development.

Not only is Arianna the only one who can use dark magic in this day and age, but she is constantly researching and perfecting new spells that only she can use.

The most recent magic she showed me was a dark time bomb that deliberately destabilizes stabilized dark magic over time.

It blew up a tree in the palace gardens, and Arianna was immediately taken away by her mother and returned to her family.

Aside from the property damage to the palace gardens, I’ve often wondered about her creative magic.

If she had been able to use the other four magics, not just the dark arts, she could have been as great an archmage as Great-Grandmother Christina.

Her idea of creating new magic was almost a godsend, but alas, the gods had not endowed her with the beloved powers of the four elements.

She often felt a pang of regret whenever she developed new dark magic, knowing that the restrictions prevented her talent from fully blossoming.

She seemed to take it for granted that she could only use dark magic.

“I wonder.”

So lest she become discouraged by her limitations, I, too, would have to see and approve of this new magic she was demonstrating.

“Let’s go out on the balcony, then. It might be a bit cramped in the room.”

With that, Ariana opened the glass doors to the balcony on either side and began to emit a jet-black glow of magic onto the floor.

The dark energy flowed across the floor of the balcony like turbulent seawater on a beach, and then stabilized in the form of a long plank.

Of all the dark magic she had used so far, this was the least reactive and most stable.

“Here”

With that, Ariana levitated the plank of magical energy into the air and began placing several objects on it at once, including a book and a teacup.

Normally, it should have exploded or shattered at the slightest external stimulus, but her magic kept it stabilized without the slightest movement from start to finish.

“…That’s amazing.”

Without meaning to, an admiration slipped out.

The magic she had shown so far had used dark magic, but mostly to slow down the effects of explosions or dissipation.

But this magic she showed me was beyond my imagination.

A table made of magic, it was almost like a creation spell.

“…Really, it’s amazing. I know that dark magic has a different nature than other magical powers, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so shaped and stabilized.”

“Magic is a bit like coding in a way, as long as you go over the instructions enough to make sure they don’t crash, they tend to work.”

“Ah, yes.”

Half the time, I couldn’t make out what she was saying.

What mattered, though, was that Arianna knew why the magic was so unstable, and she knew how to correct the unstable elements.

Perhaps it wasn’t limited to dark magic.

By everyone’s definition, all magic is supposed to be in the form of waves, but Ariana had actually succeeded in locking one of them into a tangible object.

At the same time, my mind flashed back to an argument she had made a few months ago.

That she wanted to break off her engagement to me so she could enter the Tower and study proper magic.

I told her I refused for political reasons, but more than that, I didn’t want to let her go.

I’ll probably never meet another woman in the rest of my life who is more fun to be around than her.

On reflection, maybe it was me who was being greedy, not Ariana.

Maybe I was so eager to have her as my wife that I was willing to ignore what was best for her.

Maybe I was the one who was pretending to care more about her future than anyone else, but in reality, I was the one who was setting her limits and blocking her future.

If she can accomplish this much at only ten years old, how much more magical progress will be made in her lifetime.

Even if she could only use dark magic now, who knows, maybe as her hair grew thicker, her talent for other magic would blossom.

If that happened, and she asked to enter the tower to study, I would not be able to tell her that she could not logically do so.

Perhaps it would be better to reject my own desires and set her on her own path, before the heart I still have for her grows too large…..

” Uh-huh.”

Ariana’s voice from the balcony above me interrupted my deep contemplation.

“…Ariana?”

I was so deep in thought that I was a beat too late to realize what Ariana was doing on the balcony.

Having succeeded in collapsing the energy into a form and stabilizing it, Ariana was now moving on to the next stage of her experiment.

She created a staircase of dark energy on the balcony and made the dangerous move of walking up it.

“Check this out. If I do this right, I might be able to get to the balcony upstairs.”

“It’s dangerous, Ariana, get down! Are you out of your mind to put yourself on unstable footholds made of magic?!”

“It’s okay, I won’t die.”

“Ariana!”

As if my words could not constrain her behavior, she repeated the act of climbing up the enchanted staircase to the upper floor.

As a watcher, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

Whether the dark magic could support Arianna’s weight was one thing, but it wasn’t the only thing that made me uneasy.

Dark magic can’t use the natural magic in the atmosphere, so it must rely solely on the user’s own power whenever she uses it.

This meant that users of dark magic tired much more quickly than others, and suffered from depletion much more quickly.

“…Ah.”

On the tenth step of the magic staircase, Ariana’s body tilted to the right.

There was only one step left before she stepped onto the balcony of the fifth floor.