Noble Lady Reformation Guide

“You’ve grown accustomed to wagering your life. The fact that you’re still alive up to now is already a miracle.”

Princess Roselin, resting her chin on her hand, rubbed her tired eyes as she observed the state of the main hall, which was still charged with agitation.

It had been well over thirty hours since the last time she had slept.

For now, she could still endure it, but once two full days passed, her stamina would begin to hit its limit.

Roselin opened her eyes wide again and reviewed the conversation she had had with Dereck.

— It was the only way to survive. I had no choice.

— I see. I suppose there are people like you.

Amid the fatigue that was gradually seeping in, the princess tried to gauge the strange depth she had perceived in the eyes of that young baron.

He truly was trying to capture a 6-star confusion mage.

Even in such an extreme situation, there were people who denied that such an existence even existed, so it was impossible to know where he drew that level of conviction from.

Still, if he had found a lead, the only thing left to do was support him as much as possible.

Roselin composed herself and spoke firmly.

— Then there’s something you must understand very clearly. That individual can defile memories. He can create memories that never existed, or erase those that did.

— Yes. That seems evident. Distrusting even my own memories is a rather new sensation.

— Exactly. That means he can read the memories of everyone who is here. Everyone except me. Even if you have a method to find and subdue him, that method itself could be discovered if he reads your memories.

Roselin looked at him as if testing him.

It was a logical conclusion.

Manipulating memories necessarily implied being able to read them.

You cannot alter something you do not understand.

However, Dereck shook his head.

— He can read memories, but we don’t know whether he can read intentions or thoughts.

— …

— He can verify what I saw, heard, and experienced. But there’s no guarantee he can read everything I think or plan.

Reading memories was nothing more than observing past experiences, like watching scenes projected in a magic sphere or spying on someone from afar.

Grasping pure thoughts and intentions belonged more to the domain of exploration magic than to confusion magic.

Based on that magical understanding, Dereck’s conclusion was clear.

It was as if the enemy had installed invisible cameras and listening devices—he could see and hear what had happened, but he could not read thoughts that had not yet been expressed.

— That’s true… I don’t have knowledge of magic deep enough to have reached that conclusion.

— It’s not magical knowledge. It’s just deduction based on the facts.

Roselin realized that, without noticing it, she was beginning to be carried along by Dereck’s line of reasoning.

— If he could read thoughts and intentions, he would never have been trapped by Lady Kohella’s barrier, nor would he have needed to kill the magic advisers. He knew perfectly well that Lady Kohella would not give in to that kind of threat.

Those who did not know Kohella well might think she was a benevolent leader who deeply valued her subordinates.

But in reality, she was a fanatic capable of sacrificing anything for the sake of magic.

If the enemy had understood that, he would never have wasted time murdering the magic advisers one by one.

His magic had limits.

Perhaps he could easily manipulate the memories of people without magical power, but altering the memories of those who had mastered magic required enormous effort and had clear restrictions.

The fact that he could not completely defile Kohella’s memories nor understand her true intentions was proof of that.

— He can read memories, but not thoughts.

Roselin spoke in a more serious tone.

— That’s why you don’t voice your plan aloud. The moment you do, it will reach that individual’s ears as well.

In that case, Roselin could not help him directly.

Any conspiracy they tried to devise together would be overheard by the enemy.

To resolve this, he had to do it alone.

That man was carrying on his shoulders the lives of all the nobles gathered in the enormous main hall.

Roselin knew that kind of solitude and pressure very well.

Seeing him bear it without showing the slightest crack, she let out a dry laugh and picked up a pen.

She drew several sheets toward herself and began to write, leaning against the railing.

As Dereck watched her in confusion, she folded the letter several times and slid it directly into his chest.

— It’s a blessing formula passed down by the imperial family. They say it was used by the hero Rosenheim and Kalimford during the subjugation of the Levelten mine.

— I didn’t expect you to encourage me in this way.

— You’ve never seen it? They say these blessings are read only when facing the greatest crisis or when everything is over.

Roselin smiled faintly and rested her chin on her hand again.

— When you feel the moment is right, read it. It’s nothing more than a conventional phrase, but sometimes it can help psychologically.

Dereck nodded, his expression far more serious than before.

He seemed to have realized something.

The subjugation of the Levelten mine, where a gigantic creature was said to have appeared, was a battle in which the hero Kalimford had not participated.

Anyone who had studied imperial history knew that.

In other words, the story Roselin had told was false.

Then what had she actually written in that letter?

The fact that she told him not to read it now had a clear intention.

Dereck, perceptive as he was, had already reached that conclusion.

“I don’t know if it was right to trust that man.”

Roselin remained seated by the railing on the second floor of the main hall, silently observing the nobles gathered below.

Knowing that staying within her field of vision kept them safer due to her immunity to confusion magic, almost no one wanted to leave that place.

However, some young noblewomen were causing a disturbance.

“Lady Siern! Leaving the main hall right now is dangerous! If you’re not within Princess Roselin’s field of vision—!”

“Move. If you block my way again, I’ll move you myself.”

Siern, the young lady of House Rochester, was grappling with the soldiers, determined to go after Dereck after seeing him leave the hall alone.

She carried a dangerous air, as if she truly were capable of forcibly pushing aside all the soldiers if she chose to.

As a highly skilled 3-star mage, it would not be difficult for her to deal with ordinary soldiers.

In addition to her, Diella of House Duplain, Ellen of Belmierd, and Denise of Beltus were also arguing with the guards, insisting that they had to stop Dereck.

They believed that resorting to the Book of Longing and sacrificing himself was an excessively extreme solution, born of being cornered.

As Roselin pondered what she should do, she swept her gaze across the hall once more.

And then she noticed something.

Aiselin, the young lady of House Duplain, was not there.

“…”

Everything suggested that she had already used some method to leave the main hall.

Roselin’s expression grew even more grave.

Just as she was considering how to react, a soldier stationed at the entrance to the second floor addressed her.

“Princess. There is someone insisting on seeing you.”

“…Who?”

“Linus of House Belmierd.”

Roselin frowned and turned her head.

There stood a wretched-looking man, wearing an awkward smile with both arms raised, as if trying to show that he posed no threat.

His attitude was suspicious, but even so, Roselin nodded.

No matter how miserable he looked, he was still the eldest son of House Belmierd.

Escorted by soldiers armed with spears, Linus stepped forward, knelt, and spoke.

“There is something I must tell you, Princess Roselin.”

“As you can see, I am exhausted and have many things on my mind. If you intend to distract me with something trivial, you will have to bear the consequences.”

“Of course.”

Linus smiled calmly.

“The Book of Longing that Dereck took with him… it’s a fake, isn’t it?”

Roselin frowned.

“Where is the real Book of Longing? We need it. Right now.”

***

To win at a gambling table, you first have to corner your opponent and seize the initiative.

There was no time.

Nor was there any way to identify the enemy.

The initiative, no matter what anyone said, belonged to the other side.

If Dereck wanted to take it back, there was only one option.

Force the enemy to hurry.

If Dereck, standing on the edge of 4 stars and barely brushing the entrance to 5 stars, declared that he would use the Book of Longing and sacrifice himself, then there was a chance that he could actually find the confusion mage and subdue him.

Of course, even by using the power of that forbidden artifact, he might not be able to reach the level of a 6-star confusion mage.

Until he tried, no one could know.

And that uncertainty was precisely the worst possible variable for someone who had so far controlled and adjusted everything.

For someone who accepted only guaranteed victories, an unpredictable variable was pure fear.

That was why it was almost certain that he would try to stop Dereck from using the Book of Longing from the very beginning.

And by forcing him to move, they would make him appear.

When Dereck steadied himself and looked once more at the dark open field—

A man in a robe with the hood pulled low was there, leaning within the darkness.

His face could not be seen.

His build was fairly large, but it did not look like a trained body.

From within that robe, half devoured by the darkness, the mage spoke.

It was clearly a young voice.

“How ridiculous you are, bastard.”

Did he really exist?

A 6-star confusion mage who deceived everyone’s perception, concealed even his own existence, and lived in the shadows of the world.

Guessing his true nature was not easy.

Even the figure before his eyes might be nothing more than an illusion.

Even so, Dereck drew his longsword in a single motion and focused his mana.

The enemy was in front of him.

He could not afford to do nothing.

“You say you’re going to sacrifice your life to save everyone in there? I know very well you’re not someone that altruistic. Did you really think I’d swallow such an absurd bluff?”

“For someone who says that, you showed up pretty boldly in front of me. After all this time without even sticking your toe out.”

“What a huge mistake. I didn’t show myself because I was afraid you’d use the Book of Longing to subdue me. I simply felt a personal interest in you as an individual.”

From the darkness cast by the trees’ shadows, the man extended one hand.

Only that hand emerged from the chiaroscuro and caught the moonlight.

It was the hand of a veteran mage, covered in ink stains and hardened calluses.

He clenched his fist tightly and spoke from the darkness.

“You’ll never find me. You’ll never catch me. And even if you did, everything would end up turning into something that never happened.”

“…”

“Want to know something funny? You already caught me twice. This is the third time you’ve faced me.”

Dereck remained silent and listened.

From the start, it had struck him as strange that this man claimed to feel a personal interest in him.

After all, for Dereck this was their first meeting.

But that was only from Dereck’s point of view.

In reality, he had already caught him twice before, and on both occasions the mage had erased his memories and escaped.

“The first time was when I killed the emperor. You detected the contradictions in the memories I manipulated with absurd precision, found where I was hiding, and tried to subdue me. I almost fell to a surprise attack, but I managed to open a gap, escape, and destroy all the memories so that nothing had happened. I spent so much mana that I was completely exhausted and couldn’t move for quite some time.”

In Dereck’s memories, there was absolutely no scene in which he had captured a confusion mage.

That left only two possibilities either the man was lying, or everything truly had been completely erased.

“The second time was when I killed the subordinates of that stubborn bitch Kohella. Just as I expected, you detected the gaps in my magic again, cornered me, and tried to kill me once more. You even deduced my identity. The wound you gave me with one of your throwing daggers still throbs.”

Frowning, Dereck looked at his thigh.

Of the five throwing daggers he always carried, one was missing.

Upon confirming it, his expression hardened.

“Heh… hehehe… What’s wrong? Is everything confusing to you?”

“…”

“Maybe even this conversation is false. Maybe all these memories are fabricated. Or maybe the Book of Longing doesn’t exist to begin with. Or perhaps all the memories you have have been manipulated.”

From the darkness, a viscous laughter could be felt.

A being of the shadows, without a clear purpose or identity.

Nothing could be believed.

Not even one’s own memories.

Not even that man’s words.

It was like wandering through a dense fog where absolutely nothing could be seen.

Just that alone would already have an ordinary person curled up, trembling in terror.

Being stripped of one’s memories was that chaotic.

“Don’t you know what to believe and what not to? Can’t you tell where the truth begins and ends? Do you still trust your memories? Is everything you remember really true? Are you sure?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I want you to join me. If you do, I’ll make everything clear.”

An unexpected proposal.

The man let out several bursts of laughter and, raising his voice even more, continued.

“If you help me break that madwoman Kohella’s barrier and escape from here, I’ll grant you anything you desire.”

“…”

“You have the trust of both Kohella and Princess Roselin, and even in the middle of this chaos you almost caught me twice. This is already the third time you’ve cornered me like this. It’s clear you’re not an ordinary man. To be honest, I even came to admire you for how irritating it was that you kept finding me over and over again.”

The man shook his hands as if brushing off something unpleasant and spoke with an annoyed tone.

“And tell me… doesn’t it seem strange to you?”

“…”

“I’ve exhausted my mana to the limit manipulating everyone’s memories and hiding myself. I was even able to touch Kohella’s memories a little by pushing myself to exhaustion. But there was one single person whose memories I couldn’t alter. Not even I could do anything.”

A single person.

Someone whose memories not even a 6-star confusion mage could touch.

Princess Roselin, watching from the railing on the second floor of the main hall.

No matter how skilled a confusion mage might be at rummaging through others’ memories, as long as the reference line called Princess Roselin existed, everything was meaningless.

She would immediately perceive any inconsistency and realize it.

Her mere existence was the surest brake preventing that confusion mage from acting freely.

And yet, within that fact there was a contradiction.

“You say you found me twice and cornered me. Do you really think that dark red–haired princess wouldn’t have known? Do you think that, even knowing you almost captured me, she would have stayed so calm?”

“…”

“I can’t touch that princess’s memories. And yet why, knowing all this, does she act as if she knows nothing and simply sits there, resting her chin on the railing of the main hall?”

If it were true that Dereck had nearly captured the confusion mage twice, then Princess Roselin should remember it as well.

But she hadn’t told anyone.

Not even Dereck.

She merely observed the nobles gathered in the main hall in silence, as if all of this were happening for the first time.

The man in the darkness smiled with an even more viscous grin.

“As if she wanted this bloody play to continue.”

That was what he said.

Princess Roselin was known for deeply despising vain nobles.

Was all of this really just a coincidence?

“…”

The grounds of the Ravenclaw Academy, sunk into darkness.

Amid intertwined forces, unable to distinguish truth from deception, it was becoming a true labyrinth shrouded in fog.

Dereck understood it by instinct.

It was a situation in which he had to suspect everyone, but in the very end, he would have to believe in a single person.

Whom to believe?

Kohella, the magic-obsessed lunatic capable of sacrificing anything.

Roselin, who observed everything with cold calculation from the pinnacle of imperial power.

And that man in the darkness, of unknown identity and purpose, who only proposed cooperation.

Every option looked like a trap.

A genuine maelstrom of chaos.

Not even memories were reliable.

There wasn’t even a reference point for the truth.

In the midst of that extreme situation, where everything was drowned in confusion, Dereck ran a hand over his face.

He took a deep breath and calmed himself.

Even in any circumstance, his sharpened instinct—the one that always maintained calm and reason—questioned him once more.

At the end of all this farce, in the final moment, whom was he going to believe?

He was a veteran mercenary.

A situation where everything sank into a swamp of doubt and chaos was not unfamiliar to him.

When he had been left adrift with his group deep inside a high-ranking labyrinth.

When he had to carve a path through impossible monsters with vastly inferior forces.

When he walked without stopping among blood-soaked corpses.

In those moments, almost everyone fell into confusion, lost their reason to fear.

The Dereck of his childhood had not been much different.

But that stage was long past.

In the swamp of confusion that devours reason, the only way to choose correctly to the very end was one—to define one’s own course with the greatest clarity possible.

Boom!

Before he could answer anything, Dereck’s 3-star combat spell, Pillar of Fire, struck the man squarely in the chest.

Crash! Thud!

The man, already prepared within the darkness, reacted with incredible speed, synchronizing his mana and blocking the attack.

A burning sound echoed through the air.

He hadn’t even recited an incantation.

Perhaps he hadn’t expected a chantless combat spell to carry such power, because the man immediately retreated and took a defensive stance.

The power of Dereck’s basic magic already far exceeded that of a 4-star mage, brushing the level of a family head.

Dereck’s mana control had reached a far higher level than the man had anticipated.

“You’re right. When everything is chaotic, in the end you have to believe in someone.”

Under the moonlight, at the center of the training field, Dereck flicked the tip of his sword and continued.

“But that someone isn’t you.”

If he had already found him twice and still couldn’t subdue him, then all he had to do was find him a third time, a fourth time, ten times, a hundred times—until his mana was completely exhausted.

Dereck kicked off the ground and charged forward.

***

“Not even being able to trust my own memories… what a strange feeling.”

The bedroom where the corpse of Emperor Gattrel had been discovered.

The body had already been removed, but dark, ominous bloodstains still lingered at the scene.

Sitting by the window and observing the place, Kohella let out a brief laugh.

If she managed to find the confusion mage, she could move one step closer to the trail of the seventh magic system she had sought for so long.

And that would lead her to the truth of the 7-star domain.

No matter how much she examined the scene, not a trace of magic could be perceived.

Without a doubt, even Kohella had been affected by some kind of confusion magic.

She had lost certain memories, or perhaps acquired memories that had never existed.

Manipulating Kohella’s memories must have been infinitely more difficult than doing so with others, but the fact that he had managed to influence them even slightly was already astonishing.

“Even I, who have reached 6 stars, can’t escape this confusion… truly, it’s an impressive level.”

It was at that moment—

Creak.

The door to the imperial bedroom opened, and someone entered the room.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Kohella, venerable of House Elvester.”

The tone was light, but basic courtesy was maintained.

His reddish hair was unkempt and matted, and his untrimmed beard made him look even more disheveled.

Linus, the firstborn of House Belmierd and a wandering gambler.

He stepped forward with calm strides, greeted her respectfully, and spoke.

“What is it that you want?”

“I am Linus, firstborn of House Belmierd.”

“Do you have some business with me?”

With remarkable perceptiveness, he had understood the intent behind the farce Dereck was staging.

This chaotic murder at the Ravenclaw Academy could not be allowed to continue.

That night was the moment to kill the existence hiding in the shadows.

“I’ve come to kill the 6-star confusion mage.”

Linus bared his yellowed teeth and smiled with an almost detached calm.

A pathetic itinerant gambler who wandered the betting tables of Ebelstein, a man whose magical abilities were no more than ordinary.

And yet, he was declaring that without hesitation in front of Kohella, the greatest transformation mage.