Bride Hunt

Even when Kukuvaya and Kardia finished their talk and stepped out of the room, Noi still could not rejoin him.

The moment Kardia came out, a crowd of beautifully adorned women swept him away.

Unlike the villagers of the Hyuetos Magic Count’s domain, the residents here knew Kardia was Kukuvaya’s master.

Put simply, they knew Kardia’s true age.

Of course, they also knew his prowess as a mage.

Strong, beautiful, and high-born—Kardia.

Whether the women’s aim matched what Noi imagined was unclear, but it was surely not far off the mark.

As Noi stared, stunned, at Kardia being borne away, a single lovely girl approached her.

“Good day. Welcome to Kukuvaya’s Weavers’ Enclave.”

With a delicate voice, she had a wealth of golden hair anyone would envy. Her eyes, clear as a deep-blue sky, were more beautiful than jewels. Her soft round cheeks were faintly rose-colored. Her dewy lips gleamed as if brushed with honey, and her smile seemed to carry the scent of sweet happiness.

The clothes she wore suited her as if fabrics from around the world had been selected and tailored just for her. Though the sumptuous outfit blended pale, deep, muted, and vivid tones, nothing clashed; everything heightened her beauty.

It was the very picture of a peerless maiden’s loveliness, and Noi caught her breath for an instant.

“My name is Aidoni. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Bending with gentle manners, the girl—dainty as a dawn bird even in voice—peered up at Noi with large eyes. Refined, flower-like, a girlish girl.

“Are you Lord Kardia’s new disciple?”

Because Noi had been concentrating on listening to the girl’s voice, she realized she hadn’t answered and hurried to speak.

“G-good day. Pardon the intrusion. I’m Noi. Kardia’s—well, something like that.”

Unsure how to introduce herself, Noi decided to go along with the girl’s suggestion.

Here, everyone knew Kardia as Kardia—the him that Noi did not know. She did not know whether Kardia wanted her to tell these women about a relationship that was not real.

Beside Noi, Ornis twitched an eyebrow; Aidoni’s big eyes curved into crescents as she smiled.

“My! If Lord Kardia was going to take a mana-less one, he could have taken me instead.”

Aidoni spoke it with a soft smile, and Noi froze, blankly.

“Or perhaps he wanted to study the extremely rare mana-less specimen up close?”

In a voice sweet as cotton candy, Aidoni poked at Noi. Indeed, any mage could see at a glance that Noi had no mana. It was no wonder the girl had noticed Noi’s condition. But—

(…Study?)

She had never considered that angle. If a mana-less child appeared before Noi—yes, she would surely try to keep them close and observe minutely why they were like that.

Whether she would actually do it was another matter, but she could understand that “instinct of a mage.”

“Aidoni.”

“Oh my. If it isn’t Ornis-san, whom Lord Kardia kindly took on as a disciple.”

Aidoni’s face lit up. The disconnect between that genuinely adorable face and the venom in her line left Noi gaping.

“Good day. So you’re back. How pitiable. You must feel quite out of place.”

“…Back?”

When Noi echoed the word, Ornis answered with a sigh.

“Born here, after all.”

“Eh—really!?”

If the mage world hadn’t changed in the last hundred years, then someone born into a school this large would normally be expected to study the Kukuvaya school.

Unless there were exceptional circumstances—or one met a truly renowned master—the school’s pressure would be intense.

(…I see. Since Kardia is the head family’s master, his renown is beyond reproach…)

In that case, Ornis had been handpicked. What grew stronger wasn’t pressure—it was jealousy.

“So, young lady, did you want to be Kardia’s disciple too?”

Noi wondered aloud whether, even in a grand and bustling Weavers’ Enclave like this, one might still yearn to take Kardia as master. Beside her, Ornis muttered,

“That’s some spicy bait.”

Aidoni kept smiling, but faltered for just a moment. Then she shook her head.

“No.”

“I won’t say I want to be a disciple anymore.”

“Oh?”

“I’m going to be chosen as Lord Kardia’s bride.”

Noi and Ornis looked at each other, then said in unison to Aidoni:

“…Bride?”

“Yes. It seems Lord Kardia has come to look for a bride. He was just talking with Lady Kukuvaya about it. My ears are a teensy bit keen, so I happened to overhear.”

A cute face gets even cuter when it’s sparkling with delight.

“At long last, it’s my turn.”

Noi blinked, struggling to keep up with what Aidoni was saying.

“You’re too young for that.”

“Oh my. To Lord Kardia, sixty, thirty, or seventeen makes no difference.”

Aidoni tilted her head and struck a pose; even that was a picture.

“All the elder ladies are fired up too, so I can’t afford to lose.”

Apparently all the women had eavesdropped on Kardia’s conversation with Kukuvaya together. Which meant Aidoni likely wasn’t lying.

(…Huh? Seriously?)

Kardia had certainly said he had one more errand.

Was this it?

(…So I’m already… no longer needed?)

A chill licked at her feet. For a heartbeat, she couldn’t breathe.

From a stopgap fiancée to a practical fiancée. Of course Kardia was free to choose a new bride more convenient and useful than Noi.

(—If I’m no longer the bride, there’s nothing I can give Kardia…)

The only reason she’d been allowed to stay on the floating isle was to serve as Kardia’s “bug repellent.”

(…Wait—does he mean to leave me here?)

In a Weavers’ Enclave full of mages, perhaps—as Aidoni said earlier—she would even be welcomed as a “research subject.” Easier to dump Noi here than to take her down to the domain and set up a new place for her to live.

“I’m the woman Lord Kardia is closest to in this enclave. He will surely choose me.”

Aidoni’s bright voice pushed Noi’s head lower and lower.

“…Maybe stop there? You’re making a nasty face.”

Watching Noi from the corner of his eye, Ornis said it to Aidoni. Noi’s eyes flew wide—the sudden rudeness was unlike Ornis, who had let everything slide until now.

Aidoni’s lovely face flushed scarlet; her eyes snapped up.

“A nasty… face? Who? Surely… not me?”

“Who else?”

Ornis didn’t even look at her.

Aidoni’s beautifully smiling face hardly merited being called “nasty.” Even so, as if he’d hit the bull’s-eye, her lips trembled in dismay.

“—Idiot!”

After all her previous fluency, the simple, easy insult sounded almost comical.

With shoulders bristling, Aidoni shot back at Ornis, then ran off across the corridor.

Watching her retreating back, Ornis sighed, “Finally gone.”

“Don’t mind it. She doesn’t hate you—she hates me. Even now, she only came to take a jab because ‘bride’ outranks ‘disciple.’”

For Ornis, it was unusually considerate of Noi.

“…Still, with the matter of the invitations, the bride hunt might be real.”

“Invitations?”

“They keep arriving from the palace. If he’s truly chosen a bride, he should announce the engagement. In the Esria Kingdom, a noble’s marriage doesn’t stand without the royal family’s approval… noble obligations and all that. There’s a ball scheduled, and they say to bring her. He always ignores them, so I figured he’d ignore this one too… but if he’s here hunting a bride, he must be planning to go.”

Noi sagged under the shock and crouched, hugging her knees tight.

(…Bride. The royal palace…)

A hundred years ago, Noi had lived at the royal palace as a court mage.

Which was precisely why she knew.

How noble the people there were, and how dazzlingly beautiful.

“I’m not enough…”

“That’s really true.”

“Ugh…”

Indeed, Aidoni seemed to have no interest whatsoever in Noi, who should—at this stage—be the only one called “the bride.” Aidoni’s rivals were their senior sisters, not a mana-less little girl like Noi.

Right now Noi had none of what those women had—no mana, no beauty, no backing.

“Well, sooner or later, it was always headed this way.”

That was true. Noi was a provisional, stopgap fiancée; it was only natural for Kardia to try to work something out while buying time.

(If I fail the bride role, I surely won’t be able to stay on the floating isle…)

A great sense of alienation swept over Noi.

This was the home of the disciple Kardia had once trained. Surely they were all among the nation’s foremost mages.

Noi did indeed know Kardia as a child.

But that was only for about two years. For the hundred years since, there was a Kardia she did not know, and he had borne hardships she did not know.

She should have been moved not only by how he looked, but by how nobly he’d grown inside.

And yet merely imagining that someone had shared that time and those hardships with him—that someone had supported Kardia in the past, or was here now—tightened her chest again for no reason.

(Though of course, it’s better if such a person exists.)

Why wasn’t it me? Pointless thoughts spiraled in her chest.

(If only… I could at least use magic…)

Then she could surely have held herself together better. For a mage, magical strength was the foremost source of confidence.

Without magic—and about to lose even the usefulness of being “the bride”—what would be left for Noi?

“…Ah, enough. This is a hassle.”

As she crouched and buried her face between her knees, Ornis tugged her arm.