Benjamin, standing in front of the main office on the top floor of the Alchemist Guild headquarters, knocked on the door of his own room.
Knock, knock.
"Come in."
As the permission came from inside, he opened the door with a polite attitude, took off his hat, and respectfully greeted.
"I have delivered all the letters and gifts as you instructed, my lord."
The person in the main office was none other than Duke Erkin Vladina.
Benjamin was the owner of the Alchemist Guild, or at least that's what it seemed.
The real owner was Erkin, and Benjamin was also one of the intelligence agents he had recruited.
"How did Navia look?"
"She had a slight swelling on one cheek."
Erkin was silent for a moment.
Benjamin knew well that his master was calm and gentle in nature, but contrary to appearances, he could be very cold and calculating.
That must have been a calculating expression.
Indeed, it was a look wondering who had done such a thing and how to deal with them.
"…I see. Any other unusual matters?"
"I've just seen Duke Eseled in person. He looked different from what is commonly known. And he seemed quite close to Miss Navia."
At that moment, Erkin's expression briefly seemed lost in thought.
He clasped his hands and asked somewhat anxiously.
"Duke Eseled seemed close to Miss Navia? In what way?"
Benjamin, surprised by Erkin's unusual reaction, who was always composed, answered.
"He said she's like a daughter to him. It seems she will be adopted into the family as a foster daughter."
Erkin fell silent again.
"As a foster daughter…"
He started to speak with a complex expression, then cleared his throat as his voice faltered and continued.
"If she's to be adopted as a foster daughter and going to the royal house, assign someone to keep an eye on her immediately. Report back as soon as the adoption is complete."
"Understood."
He also finished a detailed report about supplying necessities to Duke Eseled's family and the attitude he observed in Lark.
"You've done well. Continue to maintain good relations with Duke Eseled's family and get anything Miss Navia needs immediately."
"Your command is my duty."
Erkin nodded and stood up.
"Are you leaving now?"
"Yes, I have some urgent matters to attend to."
Benjamin followed Erkin to the door, and as he opened it, Erkin's figure magically became transparent.
"Take care."
"Good work."
After his plain farewell echoed in the air, Benjamin closed the door 30 seconds later.
He clicked his tongue.
"To copy invisibility magic to the point of erasing presence... Aren't you supposed to be able to copy at least 70% of an opponent's magic?"
It was known that a Copycat magician could replicate up to 30% of an opponent's ability.
But the Vladina ducal family, known for producing 'Copycats' generation after generation, was different.
"With that family, wouldn't it be possible to completely copy an opponent's ability?"
Benjamin mumbled to himself and then chuckled, shaking his head.
'If that were possible, they wouldn't just be Copycats, but legendary grand magicians.'
Shaking off such absurd thoughts, he slumped into the chair.
"Let's get back to work."
The Vladina family owned a massive mansion on the outskirts of the capital.
This place, quiet like the countryside and with a sparsely staffed mansion, was overly silent.
Nothing hid things better than silence and tranquility, true to the Vladina's style.
Erkin entered his room unseen and dispelled his invisibility spell.
He pulled a candlestick on the wall with hurried hands.
Clank!
A loud noise of a mechanism unlocking echoed, and the bed shifted sideways, revealing a secret room underneath.
Thud!
Erkin swiftly entered the room. In the center, a silver box sat atop a column that seemed cut in half.
The box's lid was red, reminding him of Navia, that child.
Erkin, hopeful, tried to open the box but, as expected, it didn't budge.
"…Sister."
He remembered his sister Camilla, who had appeared out of nowhere and handed him this box.
"Give this to Duke Eseled's foster daughter."
"What is this? Duke Eseled's foster daughter, what do you mean?"
"You must never let him know until then. Even if you see someone who looks like me, if she's not Eseled's foster daughter, do not approach. Can you promise me?"
But Erkin couldn't ignore a girl who resembled his sister.
'What's happening, sister? Where are you now?'
"Take care, Erkin."
His sister said goodbye with a fragile smile.
She, with a face so much like his, wasn't someone who could smile like that.
Erkin looked down at the box with teary eyes.
Perhaps, all the answers were inside.
* * *
After breakfast with Navia, Lark immediately went to his secret laboratory in the basement of the ducal mansion. The lab, unlike typical research facilities, had a unique appearance.
It was brightly lit not by candles but by magical lights, and was sealed with no windows or doors.
Indeed, there was no entrance. The only access was through spatial movement magic.
Lark crossed the lab, muttering irritably.
"I'm sick of this."
He disliked this space, loathing and despising it.
Before fixing his regression axis to eight years old, he always woke up here as an experimental subject.
Lark summoned necessary items to his bedroom when he needed to research or create magical tools.
But now wasn't the time for such petty emotions or unnecessary actions.
He had to let Creed's power fully permeate the mansion to maintain and restore his increasingly fragile body every day.
Lark rifled through books, extracting necessary magical formulas and data.
If his calculations were correct, he could extend it by 15 years.
'I need to find the answer in 15 years.'
Whether to end the regressions and die, or fix the regression axis to twenty years, when Camilla appeared.
'And I must find Navia's biological parents.'
Only then could he see that child again.
"Is this enough?"
He flicked his finger, holding the black bracelet meant to fill Creed's quota.
The scene shifted, and soon he was in the bedroom on the third floor. Looking out the window, he realized it was already deep into the night.
"My lord."
At that moment, Suleiman, who had been waiting for Lark in the bedroom, stood up.
"Have you returned from the laboratory?"
"Yes. Have you taken care of everything?"
What Lark referred to was adopting Navia as a foster daughter and the request to find her biological parents.
Suleiman nodded.
"It seems the royal household was eagerly awaiting this news. As soon as I entered, they expedited the adoption application."
Lark chuckled at that.
"Of course. My daughter has a remarkable talent for persuading others."
"It's a talent for convincing people."
"Same thing."
Suleiman shrugged and handed Lark some documents.
"Now, we just need to add Miss Navia to the Eseled family tree and inform the nobles."
Lark waved his hand dismissively.
"Notify them all. What can they do about my decision to adopt her as my daughter?"
"Knowing you would say so, I've already sent out the notification letters."
Having spent no small amount of time together, Suleiman casually responded and moved on to the next matter.
"As you instructed, I've also commissioned the Campanella information broker to search for Miss Navia's biological parents."
He went on about how much he paid as an advance fee, how lovely and pretty Navia looked in her new clothes while Lark was away, and so on.
"Grace must be a word coined for our young lady. Have you seen Miss Navia holding her dress hem and walking? It will be quite a scene when she debuts in high society."
"Debut..."
Noble young ladies typically had their debutante balls around fifteen years old. It was the age they became eligible for marriage, so it was to catch a suitable marital partner.
But it was different for high nobility.
They often paired up with noble bloodlines from other empires or kingdoms or children of prestigious families within the Eden Empire. This was to continue producing powerful magicians and maintain their power.
So, there was no need to rush into high society, and they often timed their debut with their coming of age ceremony.
Navia was now a lady of the Eseled family, and Lark had no plans to marry her off anytime soon.
Well, he thought it would be fine not to have her debut at all if she wished.
But at this moment, listening to Suleiman, he couldn't help but imagine Navia at a party, holding his hand, more beautiful than anyone, making her debut.
He would hold Navia's hand for the first dance and say this to her.
'They all look like trash. Don't even give them a glance. You'll hurt your eyes.'
How would Navia react?
'Maybe so….' and look at him like he was hopelessly clueless? Hmm. That seemed like it would be quite interesting.
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