âOh? I donât think thereâs any place in the castle that the Four Marquises canât go to.â
Mark took his hand off the knob and shrugged, but Mark continued to hound him, âThatâs only if theyâre the heirs. Or those who have inherited the eye colours of their House.â
âChrish.â
So thatâs why you came when Chris wasnât here?
âOh, Lukeâs treasured kid is so smart.â
Mark tried to stroke my head, and I tried to avoid his hand, but couldnât.
âHans. Itâs fine. Nico is a direct descendant of the royal family and Lei has inherited her violet eyes.â
âBut, theyâre too young. And, this is the role of their parents. Thatâs why they donât bring their children with them when theyâre this young.â
âYouâre annoying, Hans.â Mark ignored Hansâs words.
âPeople have ideas about how it should be. But, itâs not prohibited. Iâm the sensei today. I will teach them what I want to teach them.
âBut...â
âHansh.â That was me.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
âHansh we canâth go over thhere?â
âLei-sama. Well, itâs not dangerous. But itâs still too early for you to go there.â
âThen ithâsh fine.â
I looked at Nico, and he nodded. Nico was calm.
âDear me, Iâm going to open the door.â
I peeked behind the door in excitement, but it was another corridor. I was disappointed.
However, Mark continued forward and opened another door. Itâs really like a maze. Yes, itâs like a maze to make sure people canât go to the centre of the castle.
âNow, today I want to take you between the barrier.â
âBethween thhe barrier.â
âI wonder how much you know, Lei.â
Mark looked amused.
âItâs a place that you probably wonât enter ever in your life, Lei. Itâs the place that ties the royal family and the Four Marquises to Kingdom, the place where we maintain the barrier.â
I donât think we should go to such an important place. I looked at Hans. He may be worried, but he seemed annoyed.
The problem isnât whether to enter the space between the barrier or not.
âOtou-syama feewsh down.â
âLeila-sama...â
âOtou-syama wanthsh tho shhow Lei.â
Iâm sure Otou-sama would grieve since he wanted to be the first person to show me it.
âWell, Iâm sure he does,â Mark said smoothly. He ignored what I had said and opened the door with guards in front of it.
âMilord. You can enter Milord, but itâs prohibited for others to enter.â
However, he was stopped.
âThis girl has inherited the eyes of the Four Marquises, and this boy is a direct descent of the royal family. The guards will stay outside.â
âBut...â
âI have permission from His Highness Lambert.â
The guards backed down because they had no choice.
âLeila-sama, we canât follow you in.â
âAi. Itâsh oway.â
Mark is young, but he seems calm and wonât do anything rash; and heâs the sensei today, so I have no choice but to trust and follow him. Isnât it exciting to go between the barrier?
When Mark opened the door, he signalled for us to go in, so we went in while he was holding the door open.
âWow.â
Unlike what I had expected, the room was big. There was a table in the centre of the room, and the room was lit brightly.
And, that was all.
There were no windows. There were two doors besides the entrance, but there was nothing else in the room. It was quiet.
âCome on, letâs go over there.â Mark took us to the table in the middle. Nico held his hand out to me. I held his hand lightly, and we headed to the centre.
âI think I should hold Lei. See, it turns into this.â
The round table-like thing in the middle wasnât a table, but a pedestal that had been embedded in the floor.
Mark picked me up, then put five big magic stones into the square frame on the pedestal; one in the middle and one in each of the four corners.
âThe middle represents the royal family. The one facing the door symbolises the Remingtons. From there clockwise: the Albans, Lisburns and Molesey Houses.â
âBig...â I couldnât help but say since it was that big. However, it wasnât as big as I thought. I instinctively looked for my Rug Dragon plushie to my right. Wait, itâs next to my pillow.
The magic stones were about the same size as the Hollows that rarely appear in the prairie. It was too big to fit in my hand, but it fits nicely into the hand of an adult.
âThe magic stones are about the same size because of the person in charge. There are few magic stones like this, so the castle buys them up when they appear in the market. Therefore, there are a few spares.â
I was held up, and Nico climbed up the chair himself so that we could see on top of the table. The colours of the magic stones varied from light pink to dark purple.
How much will my magic fill? I remembered that Alistair had fainted when I had first seen him fill the magic stone for the barrier box. After that, I accompanied them to train our magic; then I began training on my own, so I think my magic reserves have grown much bigger, and my control has gotten better too.
I can refill the slightly faded magic stone. However, I donât think I can fill the pink magic stones until theyâre dark purple.
This is the power of the Four Marquises. This is the duty that Otou-sama is buried with, and Onii-sama will be burdened with it later.
I suddenly noticed that Nico was reaching out to the magic stones.
âNico.â
His hand stopped.
âOh, you canât do that, Your Highness. You donât know how to do it, and if your magic happens to be sucked up, then itâll dry out,â Mark said as if he was surprised. He put me down, then carried Nico off the chair.
Nico and I looked at each other.
We know how to channel magic, and although I canât fill the barrier magic stone until itâs full, Nico can probably fill a magic stone until itâs full since he has more magic than me.
If I can do it, then I want to try. Nicoâs eyes said.
âNo.â
âI want to.â
âNo.â
âWell, if you say so, Lei.â
Itâs not my problem. Nicoâs Otou-sama will probably get angry. I decided to distract Nico.
âMarw, where do thhoshe doorsh go?â
âOh, the resting place.â
âI want to see!â
When I pulled his hand, he chuckled and walked towards the door.
âNico!â I also called out to Nico, who was staring at the magic stone table.
âAlright.â
âIâm going to open the door.â
The other side of the door that Mark showed us was like a small hotel.
There were two big beds, a small table and chair, and a tea set.
âThe door over there leads to a small bathroom and shower.â
It really is like a hotel.
âBut, I donât think anyone uses it. Everyone leaves once they finish their work.â
âWhath abouth thhe othher door?â
âIt leads to another place, but thatâs still a secret.â
Then, it got noisy beyond the door where the guards were stationed. What the heck is going on?