Julius, who saw him interrogating me, always teased him. “Are you the father of the countess?” Kaichen always ignored him. I honestly didn’t mind Julius’ meddling at this point.
“Teacher, if I am in danger, you told me to call you, right? Will you come running every time I call?”
“Yes.”
“Alright then. I am your disciple so you should treasure me.”
“No, you will become spoiled.”
“But you said it was okay.”
“That was then.”
“It was a few hours ago….”
Kaichen raised his eyebrows at me. I smiled softly and leaned forward. “Teacher, so how do we create a magical wand?”
Kaichen sighed and swept his hair away from his forehead. He always gave in, in the end. He is so adorable. Even with a cold, indifferent face, everything he did looked cute.
“The wand can’t be willed into the shape you want because it is created by condensing your mana. However, if it is any consolation, it does respond to your thoughts and personality. You just can’t order it to be a certain way.”
“Correct. People have different personalities just as mana have different colors. The form of the wand is the representation of one’s mana.”
“What did your wand look like?” I already knew what it looked like, but I pretended not to. I wanted to hear him say it. But Kaichen clamped his mouth shut and turned away.
“It was… normal.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Teacher, are you lying to me?”
“I don’t lie!”
I restrained myself from laughing out loud at his serious expression. How much does he hate to be caught lying? I would have thought that he would be inept to lie but looking at him now, it seemed he was a natural. Or, does he really think his wand was normal as anybody else’s?
When he makes a new wand again, I would see its form anyway. I listened to him attentively as he explained the process of wand-making. I suddenly remembered what my own mana looked like. It was black, heavy and gloomy. It even felt as thick as a jelly. The concentration of my mana was higher than an average person’s.
“Teacher, what do you think my wand would look like?” I asked him as I leaned back and summoned my mana on the palm of my hand. It was as black as the night on a new moon day in the absence of any star.
“Why is my mana black? Is it… contaminated because of some mixture?” I blurted out the questions I had been biting on to. It was the mana that had been collected over the course of a hundred years. It was black from the beginning, but considering what happened within that time, I thought the word ‘contaminated’ was an apt way to describe it.
“Black doesn’t change no matter what color it is mixed with. It’s not contaminated, it’s a color that never gets contaminated.” I never thought I’d hear an answer. I hadn’t expected an answer at all. But my heart pounded at his answer. It made me happy. My heart soared.
“Teacher, my heart just pounded.”
“A pounding heart is a sign of good health.”
“It’s not like that. I’m saying that my heart… fluttered.”
“Fluttered? Which part?” He tilted his head and observed me. That is his reaction at being told that my heart fluttered? I narrowed my eyes.
“When you said that it’s a color that never gets contaminated.” I sighed. Really, one needs to be straightforward with a guy as dense as him.
“I was just stating the obvious. Don’t say that your heart flutters so easily. Don’t you know that those words and actions are frivolous? I am saying this again. You shouldn’t act carelessly in Heulin.”
You frustrating jerk! I pouted in displeasure.
“I am only frivolous and open with you, Teacher.”
He didn’t respond. I sighed again. “So, tell me. What do you think my wand would look like?” I changed the subject because I knew there would be more nagging if I went on.
Kaichen’s lips twitched. He seemed like he wanted to say more. But he sighed and let it go, He looked at my mana floating in the air on the palm of my hand.
How can I not like him when he is like this? I had assumed that he would be a pretty tough person to deal with, considering that he hated to interact with people and had mysophobia. But I realized that there was no better man than him. He cared about me; he was indifferent to everyone except me. He treated me as though I was someone special to him. I can feel the difference in how he treated others and how he treated me to the point that it made my heart tremble.
