IBTHM Chapter 9

"Ah..."

"..."

We locked eyes awkwardly and remained silent for quite some time.

It wasn't that I had any ulterior motives regarding Hades, but his face was so ridiculously handsome that I instinctively flinched.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who'd become slightly flustered.

Hades remained frozen in that awkward position for a good while as well.

"Ahem."

The atmosphere had grown uncomfortable, so I cleared my throat unnecessarily and was about to withdraw my hand from where it rested on Hades's head.

That's when the expression on Hades's face—which had been right in front of me—suddenly changed, and he grabbed my retreating left hand.

"...What on earth is this?"

"Ah."

My left wrist, which had been hidden by my sleeve and thus never visible, was now exposed.

On the inside of my wrist, a white oval-shaped gem about the size of my index finger was embedded in the skin.

At a glance, one might dismiss it as merely some aristocratic accessory, but anyone from the Crescenta Empire would immediately recognize what this was.

Hades gripped my wrist, turning it over to stare down at the gem that clung tightly to the skin as if it were part of my body, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"In this Crescenta... you're telling me there's someone who's reached this age without learning to hide this?"

Though perhaps a bit late, I need to address something I'd postponed while enthusiastically explaining my post-reincarnation journey of fangirling over Abel.

The appeal of the novel Persona was, in fact, 60 percent the existence of the perfect male lead Abel, and 40 percent the author's fascinating fantasy worldbuilding—a true masterpiece.

If you traced back the imperial Crescenta bloodline, the story went that their ancestors were dragons.

As is typical in fantasy settings, dragons possessed immense magical power, and the majority of Crescenta Empire citizens—descendants of these dragons—knew how to wield supernatural abilities like magic.

Within the worldview of Persona, magic was explained through six attributes: fire, water, earth, wind, light, and darkness. Every Crescenta citizen was born with one of these attributes.

Take the Ruvermonte Ducal House as an example—throughout the empire's long history, this family had consistently produced powerful talents with the fire attribute.

Hades Ruvermonte was exceptionally outstanding even among them.

Of course, having the same attribute didn't mean everyone possessed similar ability levels.

Just as there were plenty of exceptional talents and mages, there were also many ordinary imperial citizens with virtually no ability.

A perfect example would be the Esclife Barony.

My family had maintained an extremely pure light-based white attribute for generations, never mixing with other attributes, yet we'd never once produced a renowned healer or saint.

The power called mana was, to put it bluntly, so nonexistent you could search with a magnifying glass and find nothing.

At any rate, this meant that all Crescenta citizens were born with a gem called a Core Jewel embedded somewhere on their body, symbolizing their attribute.

This was why I'd been able to recognize that this was the world of the novel Persona when I'd woken up after my near-death experience and saw the white gem embedded in my wrist.

Core Jewel.

In other words, the core stone.

Even from the name the author had chosen, you could smell how tremendously important this device was. And yes—I was right.

Just as a pierced heart or extracted brain meant instant death, for Crescenta citizens, this Core Jewel was a vital weak point. Even a crack meant death.

Having this openly embedded somewhere on your body was a fatal vulnerability.

Therefore, all Crescenta citizens learned how to hide this weak point when they were young.

No matter how incompetent someone might be, if they were from the magical empire of Crescenta, they possessed at least a minimal amount of mana. Internalizing the Core Jewel into one's body was simply something you naturally learned as you grew older—like learning to walk after your first birthday.

However, here's the truly astonishing fact.

Aisha Esclife, a noble young lady from a backwater countryside estate who never even appeared in the novel, was a girl who'd died at eighteen without learning even that supposedly easy task of walking.

"Remarkable."

Hades, who'd brought me to his room, looked utterly bewildered.

His expression suggested he was looking at a woman who was twenty years old and still crawling around in diapers.

Of course, I completely understood his feelings.

Compared to my previous life's body, wasn't this like walking around with my heart or brain dangling outside my body? Ah, how horrifying.

"How on earth have you survived until now?"

"By treating my left wrist extremely preciously, I suppose?"

I said this while fiddling with my left wrist, which Hades had firmly wrapped with a black handkerchief as soon as we'd arrived in the room.

Hades looked utterly flabbergasted.

"How is that even...! Ugh..."

He rubbed his forehead and let out deep sighs. If each sigh made the earth sink a span, by now we might be at the planet's inner core.

"If you're telling me you can't do what even ten-year-old Abel can do..."

Hades unreasonably insisted I somehow shove the gem on my wrist inside, but if I could have done that, I would've managed it with my own strength long ago.

In the first place, the only thing that had changed from my previous life was this body—I had no talent for sensing the mana flowing inside my body, let alone controlling it.

Though I'd been reincarnated as a human of this world, unlike mass-produced romance fantasy novels, my abilities hadn't been automatically patched.

"Of all places, why does it have to be on your wrist? If only it were somewhere easier to hide..."

"Tell me about it."

"From now on, come to my room every day. You'll need to practice internalizing your core stone for an hour each day."

"Is that something that can be achieved through practice? Can you even teach me?"

At my question, Hades pondered.

Think of it as trying to figure out how to teach a toddler to walk—that makes it easier to understand.

Should he explain this verbally, demonstrate it physically, or could it even be taught and understood at all?

Hades remained silent for quite some time with a thoughtful expression before speaking.

"It's better than doing nothing at all. To be honest, this is truly bewildering. The woman who'll become my wife... to think she's reached this age without hiding even a single core stone."

At Hades's words, I asked with slight embarrassment.

"Do you... regret proposing?"

"What?"

Though I'd asked casually without much concern, Hades was the one who panicked instead.

He hurriedly corrected himself.

"That's not what I meant. What I'm saying is... yes, I'm worried. If someone harbored ill intent, it would be extremely easy to harm you. A firm grip on your wrist would be the end of it, wouldn't it?"

"Who would even think of killing someone like me?"

"Once you've decided to become part of the ducal house, you need to be more vigilant. I'm sorry to say this, but I have many enemies. If you become my wife, they might very well target you directly."

"...I see."

I looked down at my wrist, now bound with Hades's handkerchief, feeling somewhat troubled.

Since opening my eyes in this place, I'd only been grateful for the fact that I could breathe and fangirl in the same world as Abel—I'd never actually thought about adapting to this world as Aisha Esclife.

In other words, as Hades said, I was both unguarded and complacent.

What had been my impression when I first saw the white gem embedded in my wrist?

Probably just fascination that it matched the attribute of the female lead who would appear later. That was all.

I'd never marveled at Aisha, who'd lived eighteen years walking around with this exposed, nor worried about myself who would continue living as her.

Now that I was thinking about it, I suddenly felt stifled.

How was I—a 21st-century modern person who'd only ever encountered such unrealistic abilities within the pages of novels—supposed to adapt to this?

'The female lead Deborah is such a capable healer that any party would pick her up first...'

The female protagonist's achievements flashed through my mind like a panorama—she shared my white attribute but with ability levels that were worlds apart.

"Um... Your Grace, I'm sorry."

"What now?"

Hades asked with a slightly irritated air.

"I don't seem very useful. No matter how I think about it, I'm really not suited to be a Ruvermonte talent. All I know how to do is..."

Fangirl.

"Listen here, young lady."

"As you can see from how I can't even hide my gem, not only me but everyone in my family can't properly wield attribute magic. If I were even slightly more useful, I could at least provide minimal help when Your Grace or Young Lord Abel came back injured."

The novel Persona was, overall, about Abel getting beaten up here and there.

It would be somewhat better once the female lead Deborah, who possessed healing and purification abilities, appeared, but until then, Abel would have to suffer relentlessly.

I'm sorry, Abel. I'm just a pathetic fangirl whose ability level converges on zero...

"Aisha."

As I sulked, a shadow suddenly fell before me.

It was Hades, who'd approached closely.