Chapter 51

Chapter 51
## Chapter 51

“Of course, Miss Denise’s words can be useful. However, I can also provide sufficient reasons not to abandon the **Beltus family**. After all, reasons are something one can invent when necessary.”

The Beltus family, while its reputation rivals that of the Duplain family—which dominates the southwestern continent—cannot exert as much influence as Miss Aiselin and Miss Diella.

When it comes to engendering heirs, it is difficult to find a place capable of raising such excellent successors as the Duplain family, even in the entire continent.

However, Dereck continued as if none of that mattered.

“There are three reasons why I did not abandon the Beltus family.”

“…What are they?”

“First of all, Miss Denise is a much more valuable person than she believes herself to be.”

“Thank you.”

“I am not telling you this to flatter you.”

Denise, thinking it was just an empty compliment, thanked him without emotion, but Dereck flatly denied it.

She knew that white-haired mercenary did not say things he didn’t mean. Even so, it wasn’t easy for Denise to accept Dereck’s words just like that.

“Miss Denise has achieved results and maintained her position even in the hostile environment of the Beltus family. That is hard to compare with the warm family bonds of the Duplain family.”

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“What are you trying to say?”

“Steel is forged with intense heat, but human beings become truly strong in cold climates.”

Dereck was someone who had grown up in a humble and cold environment.

His values differed from those of Aiselin and Diella, who had grown up sheltered in the bosom of the Duplain family and had received much affection.

“A flower that blooms in a greenhouse may look beautiful, but it has inevitable limitations. I believe true value resides in the weeds that can survive in hostile environments.”

“Are you saying I am like a weed?”

“It is a somewhat strange expression, but… yes, it’s true. Miss Denise has the qualities of a weed.”

“…Wow. That is a bit too direct to be considered a compliment…”

“I do not speak empty words.”

“I know.”

Perhaps what that mercenary said was completely sincere. Denise felt an inexplicable sense of confidence growing inside her.

This mercenary valued Denise’s qualities highly. No matter how much she insisted, he never interrupted her training.

A famous teacher only teaches students he considers valuable. Dereck seemed to have found value in Denise even without her knowing it herself.

“The second reason is that, no matter what happens, I need to maintain my relationship with the Beltus family a little longer.”

“You already have a fairly close relationship with the Duplain and Belmierd families. There is no reason to also maintain contact with the Beltus family…”

Denise suddenly went silent.

She stared into Dereck’s eyes and then swallowed hard.

“Are you trying to become a noble?”

“If it were necessary, it would be good to obtain a noble title through contributions, but I have no ambition for social advancement. My only goal is to maintain ties with many prestigious families so that there are no major obstacles to my magical achievements.”

Common people often feel aversion toward nobles obsessed with their privileges, but Dereck felt nothing in particular—neither positive nor negative—toward them.

He simply knew it was useless to oppose the nobles when it came to learning magic.

If he wanted to become a high-level mage in the future, he would need the support of as many prestigious families as possible. Given Drest’s life, that was not something to be taken lightly.

“…That is typical of you. In the end, all you want is to learn advanced magic, right?”

“Yes. If I manage to maintain good relations with the three great families, no one will be able to interfere with my magical progress. However, this only applies to the southwestern part of the continent.”

“Do you really think you will reach the level of a 3-star mage…?”

“I am already at the 3-star level.”

“What??”

Dereck made that shocking declaration with total indifference.

He showed no emotional change, but Denise couldn’t help her pupils trembling for an instant.

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She thought he had only mastered two-star magic. Even within the two-star level, there was a great difference between someone who had just reached it and someone who had fully developed it.

And the 3-star level far exceeded that difference.

Even among the nobility, only one or two per generation reach the three-star level at their coming-of-age ceremony. But this was the first time she had seen a commoner reach that level at such a young age.

She began to understand why Dereck was so intent on maintaining good relations with the three great noble families.

Denise swallowed again and remembered the magical skills Dereck had demonstrated so far.

It wasn’t strange at all to consider him a 3-star mage.

“Dereck, you really are obsessed with magic.”

“I still have a long way to go.”

“Yes, it makes sense. You certainly have reasons to stay with the **Beltus family**.”

Denise nodded as she sat on an old display case. At one point, she even let out a forced laugh. After all, this mercenary never strayed from the truth in his words.

No matter how hard Denise tried to manipulate him, he always shattered her cunning plans with his direct words.

He was with the Beltus family for his own safety and progress. And he said it with total certainty.

In Dereck’s words, there was no room for indulgence.

They weren’t even intended to console Denise, whose wings had been clipped. They simply laid out the facts.

‘….’

However, sometimes, after going in circles, that became a form of consideration and comfort. Dereck surely understood that well too.

Someone like Denise would not be moved by comforting words or flowery rhetoric.

*You are not a person without value. You are a beautiful and valuable being.*

She was not the type of person to be swayed by empty promises like those.

Instead, she found a strange comfort in someone like Dereck, who told her with an expressionless face, “Isn’t it so?”.

She felt a strange tranquility when Dereck affirmed Denise’s value with solid arguments—arguments that were hard to refute.

“I have become a very stingy woman, and I feel relieved by words like those.”

Denise thought to herself as she smiled and mentally scolded herself. This boy named Dereck judged people as individuals, beyond their status or family.

For Denise, who had suffered her entire life under the oppression of the Beltus family’s prestige, he was a strange person.

Now that she thought about it, during their lessons, not once did he impose the typical noble mentality, such as shining for the Beltus family or striving for greater honor and power.

He truly wanted to teach Denise magic. There was not a trace of the Beltus family’s glory in that intention.

Reflecting on this, Denise began to see this magic teacher, Dereck, with different eyes.

A teacher teaches people. And a mentor guides people.

It was understandable that Aiselin praised him as a good teacher and mentor.

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What a strange person!

In aristocratic society, where everything revolved around authority and discipline, Dereck might have been the only one who taught people with purity, without being bound by that sense of status.

Regarding his rarity, for Denise—who had lived her whole life oppressed by family prestige—he was as valuable as gold.

Now she was beginning to understand why so many noblewomen were trying to bring this magic master into their families.

Dereck.

Looking at him serenely, Denise gently closed her eyes, then opened them and smiled as she spoke.

“So, what is the third reason?”

Suddenly, she felt curious.

Dereck had said there were three reasons why he stayed with the Beltus family instead of moving to the Duplain family. She had only heard two so far.

What importance could it have to receive the approval of that boy, who was not the son of any famous noble, but only a mercenary from the slums…? It was something she could easily dismiss as irrelevant.

However, Denise suddenly felt a deep curiosity about the final reason.

She more or less understood the first two reasons, but she was embarrassed by the insistence with which she sought the last one, like a small child begging for praise. She laughed to herself, feeling like a puppy wagging its tail while pretending indifference.

“Ah, the third one?”

Dereck said it so naturally, as if it were nothing.

“I just want to know how the story ends.”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

For a moment, she had to ask him what he was talking about.

“If I go with another family, I won’t be able to see the rest. It’s hard to bear being isolated at such an important time.”

“…You don’t mean…?”

“Yes. I mean *The Arrogant Lord Robain*.”

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What nonsense is that!

Denise jumped to her feet and almost screamed.

Realizing she had just lost her composure, she blushed and quickly sat back down.

It seemed she was having trouble breathing.

“Have you been waiting for the next part of the story?”

“Yes. Don’t you write it every night?”

“How could I pick up a pen again after such a scandal?!”

“Shame? I don’t think that’s necessary…”

This man was being sincere.

Denise looked at Dereck with a confused expression. He had no intention of mocking her past or causing her trouble.

That made it even more terrifying. In moments like this, purity was the most lethal poison.

“That… that was just something to throw away! I wrote it as a passing hobby… You don’t really believe I was seriously writing such a childish and silly story, do you?”

“…Really? I found the detailed descriptions and character development very impressive. You can tell a lot of effort went into it…”

“Ugh…”

“As I already said, it is too harsh to discard it completely just because you feel embarrassed. After all, didn’t you stay up all night writing it, Miss Denise?”

Although her face turned red as a tomato, Denise managed to respond.

“You’re treating me like an idiot.”

“Me?”

“Don’t pretend otherwise.”

“I’m really not.”

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Dereck remained serious.

He brushed the dust off the hem of his pants and spoke with the same firm tone.

“Miss Denise, you said you were an empty shell, a pawn manipulated by the **Beltus family**, but looking at the facts, that’s not entirely true, is it?”

“What?”

“Even though no one asked you to, you wrote those stories, read and studied the works of other great authors. Why do you think the servants pretended not to see you working late into the night with your pen?”

Denise’s pupils dilated slightly. She began to understand why Dereck had taken her teaching so seriously.

Even in his nightly weariness, he remembered the image of a girl sitting at her desk in the moonlight.

She lived swept away by the overwhelming pressure of her family, like a giant wave. However, at night, she sat by the window, gazing at the stars and imagining the love of fictional characters.

She wrote about people who kept their worth, even in the face of harsh reality.

The characters in her writing, who lived and breathed, never gave up before the countless waves of events.

Even Lord Robain, immersed in a family crisis, and Tracy, who faced the limitations of her status, fought with all their might to find happiness.

She depicted scenes where sunlight always broke through the clouds after the storm.

Foam crashed against the half-collapsed piers.

At first glance, it might have seemed bleak, but the girl always conveyed the hope that was always with her. Because that was what she truly wanted to express.

That was why she wrote until late at night with her pen.

That was why an old mercenary, reading with his chin resting on his hand, could not laugh at those lines, even if they were a bit embarrassing or made his back feel warm.

“The verses you wrote after reflecting all night prove that you are not an empty person, Miss Denise. Do I seem like such an insensitive person as to dismiss those things as nonsense?”

“…”

“I thought you might take it as an empty compliment, but I still wanted to tell you that I enjoyed it.”

Dereck spoke with his usual serenity. From the moment they met in the Raspah cave until now, he had not changed.

She was beginning to understand the value of his persistence. Denise looked at Dereck in silence and then laughed softly.

It was a laugh that bloomed like a bud.

“Dereck, you are… very hard to understand.”

In the dark basement, with no one around, Denise ran her hand through her hair for no particular reason.

She didn’t know if it was embarrassment, shyness, or something else, but she found it difficult to maintain eye contact with Dereck.

Still, it didn’t feel uncomfortable at all.

***

“Miss Denise is in the pavilion.”

“Already? She arrived very fast.”

“Are you ready to go down now?”

“No, let them wait a bit.”

Some servants were busy adjusting the neckline of Diella’s dress.

Diella, dressed in a beautiful gown adorned with ruffles in the dressing room, lingered without leaving. Making guests wait was a kind of power play.

Time had passed since the psychological warfare at that meeting. Now it was the day of the agreed duel between Diella and Denise.

The conditions imposed by Diella were surprisingly generous, even from the Beltus family’s point of view.

There was no reason to refuse: she offered to buy a non-existent painting at the risk of losing it, even handing over cash.

The conditions for hiring a commoner mercenary were outrageously luxurious, but the Duke of Beltus was willing to go that far to get someone like Dereck.

“Miss Diella… I hesitate to say this, but…”

“I’m tired of hearing it. You want me to show some respect to Lady Denise, right?”

“…”

When the butler Delron spoke so firmly, even the cruel Diella could only respond with a long sigh.

No matter how much she became the mistress of the Duplain family, she could not harm the butler responsible for the entire household.

However, whether she listened or not was still another matter.

“I know. She may act sweet and innocent, but she’s the type to attack you at any moment.”

“Lady Denise, of the **Beltus family**, enjoys great respect even in the Rose Salon. If she were truly as dangerous as she seems, wouldn’t she be a heavy burden for you, Miss Diella?”

The butler Delron offered his advice boldly. Of course, he had his own reasons.

“As the mercenary said, if you become an enemy of Lady Denise, your ties with Rose Salon might not remain intact.”

“Ugh… the butler always brings up Dereck when things aren’t going well…”

Diella groaned as she spoke.

Every time Dereck entered the scene, her determination faltered, and she couldn’t help but reflect more deeply.

What if, by chance, Denise harbored no hostility toward her? What if, by chance, the letters Denise had sent were authentic? What if, by chance, Denise was simply a kind-hearted noble who had no intention of deceiving?

These possibilities haunted her as she walked toward the pavilion, absorbed in her thoughts.

But in the end, they were only thoughts. What mattered now was something else.

Today’s magical duel would take place in the private dueling arena located in Diella’s pavilion.

Since it was a recently built facility, she wanted to inspect it personally and did not wish to exhibit her skills in a public place where others could observe her. Denise agreed immediately and arrived at Diella’s house as an early guest.

The natural thing would have been for the hostess to personally receive such a distinguished visitor, but Diella left Denise waiting alone in the reception room for quite a while.

With that delay, she intended to provoke a small psychological game. After what seemed like an eternity, Diella finally entered the room with a relaxed air; by then, Denise was already seated at the guest table.

Humming a tune while leafing through a book indifferently, she looked as relaxed as ever.

She even seemed more comfortable than at the Rose Salon meeting, as if she had prepared a bit.

Diella frowned and sat across from her. Denise closed her book, set it aside, and greeted her with an elegant bow, with a smile as bright as the sun.

“Are you well, Miss Diella?”

“Yes. I am perfectly fine.”

Diella answered curtly, but Denise didn’t seem to mind at all.

She simply picked up the tea cup—which had already gone cold—took a delicate sip, and smiled with her usual grace.

“This new house is truly beautiful. It perfectly reflects the grandeur of the Duplain family.”

As Denise engaged in light, polite conversation with a sweet smile, Diella felt a strange pressure. No matter how tough she could be, her opponent showed no sign of offense.

With her silver-gray hair, bright eyes, elegant manners, and inexhaustible composure, she perfectly embodied the noble lady.

Although she didn’t raise her voice or show anger, she radiated a strangely oppressive aura.

While many high-ranking noble ladies often felt intimidated before Diella, Denise seemed unmoved.

However, there was no need for confrontation. Diella sighed and then laughed. A beautiful rose always has thorns.

And so do people.

—

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