MHHC Chapter 49

The Pull

"Let the magic settle into it."

He whispered the command again, his voice carrying the weight of instruction.

Adele gripped the dagger as he'd directed, stone facing upward.

But in her heart, the conviction festered that all of this was merely wasted time, breath spent on futility.

She had attempted it hundreds of times. Each attempt had crumbled into failure.

Not once had she summoned even a spark the size of a firefly's glow.

"Retrace the memory."

He coaxed her gently, patient as a teacher who refused to abandon even the most hopeless student.

Adele clutched the dagger tight and tried to summon the memory of that night. Though in truth, no effort was required.

That night. The precise moment when Valentin had drawn from her body a magic as boundless as the sea.

The sensations she'd felt then remained vivid, each detail preserved like insects in amber. She needed only to close her eyes, and the memory pulled her back into its current.

The twilight sky beyond the window, dust motes drifting through the library's stale air, the musty scent of aged paper, the heat-soaked atmosphere, and Valentin's hands—uncannily hot where they'd touched her skin.

From that point of contact, stimulation had poured into her depths. It had clawed wildly at her heart, and from the wounds torn open, deep blue light had surged forth in thick, choking waves.

"Slowly..."

Adele breathed in rhythm with his voice. Valentin laid not a single fingertip upon her.

Yet even with her eyes closed, she felt his gaze as though it were physical touch. It felt like sparks crackling across her skin, setting it alight.

"Breathe."

Adele continued her concentration slowly, deliberately. Was it her imagination? She could feel her heartbeat racing beneath her skin, a sharp current flowing through her veins.

Then, at some indeterminate moment, something tugged sharply below her navel. Adele recognized this sensation.

This was precisely what she'd felt just before magic had awakened in her.

As she stimulated it gradually, she felt a refreshing energy racing along the path that had opened once before.

Then her heart gave a sudden throb, and power bloomed upward. She opened her eyes.

"Ah..."

A faint blue light flickered palely within the stone.

Compared to the power that had awakened that night, this was an absurdly fragile luminescence. Yet magic was magic, regardless of strength.

Considering there had been not even a speck of progress before this, it was a tremendous achievement.

She met Valentin's eyes and smiled brilliantly, joy flooding her expression without restraint. He curved his eyes in response, his smile arriving without delay.

"You did well."

The praise was rare. When he took the dagger from Adele's hand, the light that had intensified abruptly vanished as though washed clean.

He returned the now-darkened dagger to her hand.

"Eventually, you'll be able to do this without such... aids."

"Do you really think so?"

"The stone is merely a medium, after all. The power pools inside you, Adele."

"But I still don't feel like it's mine. I didn't know I could do this. I've tried many times before, but I never succeeded even once."

She added without confidence.

"Today was just a coincidence... I don't even know why it worked."

"Shall I tell you why you could suddenly do it?"

Valentin's handsome lips curved into a mischievous smile, appearing without warning.

When she nodded reflexively, he tilted his head at an angle, as though about to whisper some great secret. His lips touched near her ear.

His whispering breath tickled.

"We kissed just a little while ago."

"What does that have to do with—"

"That power originated from me, so naturally, contact with me... influences it."

"......"

"That's why I suggested we continue... spending nights together."

Adele's face flushed scarlet in an instant as she glanced at him sidelong.

He possessed a particular talent for making even ordinary words sound seductive.

When in reality, he barely shared the edge of the bed. When he refrained from demanding anything for fear of exhausting her.

She placed her hand against his chest and pushed lightly.

"That's absurd."

"Why is it... absurd?"

"You're clearly just teasing me."

"If you don't believe me, kiss me again and see."

"Y-you, you can't say such things."

"This isn't allowed, that isn't allowed. Aren't you being a bit too... strict?"

"......"

"You seduced me thoroughly just now. Don't you think it's too cruel to... abandon me like this?"

"You're the one who refused, Your Grace."

"There. You called me... 'Your Grace' again."

As though the arm strength pushing him away was laughable, he instead caught Adele's waist and pulled her toward him.

He bit her nose bridge as though finding her exasperating. His grip on Adele's clothing was growing increasingly forceful.

This had torn her clothes on more than one or two occasions, so Adele tried urgently to pry his hands away.

But the more she tried, the more he stubbornly refused to release her, as though being deliberately obstinate.

She looked up at him with troubled eyes, but he only pulled her closer, having apparently decided to be shameless.

"......"

With both hands no longer free, only one method of separating him remained.

Since he supposedly responded like a dog to even her slightest gesture, she might as well see just how far that reaction went—this twisted thought arose simultaneously with the action itself.

She rose onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips against the point of his chin. She'd aimed for his lips, but lacked the height to reach them.

"......"

He stared at her with bewildered eyes, then suddenly flinched backward in shock.

He covered his mouth with one large hand and stared at her as though frozen. She'd thought him composed, but his ears and the nape of his neck had turned quite red.

He muttered with an expression of distress.

"That's too much. I'm... barely... holding back."

He made a sound like a groan dying in his throat.

The look in his eyes as he gazed at her turned dangerous. It seemed he might be seriously calculating the remaining time and her stamina.

Before he could translate thought into action, Adele quickly changed the subject.

"If I become proficient at handling magic, will I be able to use power freely? Like how you heated the stew earlier and pulled the distant dagger to you?"

He narrowed his eyes as though seeing right through her attempt to deflect. But he answered obediently nonetheless.

"...Even greater things are... possible. Though it will require practice."

"Greater things?"

"You could summon... tidal waves. Or call down... lightning."

Adele tried to imagine herself wielding such tremendous power freely, but no matter how hard she tried, no concrete image materialized.

Only an awkward feeling welled up, as though she were forcing herself to comprehend something impossible.

She pressed the area near her heart where the magic had resided and asked.

"If the sources of magic and holy power are the same, couldn't I produce power like holy power?"

"How disappointing."

He looked at Adele with round eyes, then laughed softly.

She realized her question must have sounded like a rejection of Valentin himself.

Adele tried to offer hasty explanations, but Valentin merely shrugged once and answered as though it were no great matter.

"There is a way, of course. You'd just have to... shatter the vessel."

Shatter the vessel. At this unexpected method, she hesitated and looked at Valentin.

Whatever his inner thoughts, he at least wore a faint smile outwardly. Like someone who hadn't been wounded at all.

She wavered fiercely between curiosity and courtesy before carefully speaking.

"Um, if you shatter the vessel, wouldn't that mean you couldn't contain 'power' at all anymore? Or is it possible to remake the vessel somehow?"

"You want to shatter your soul... to gather holy power? What a frightening person you are, Adele..."

He spoke as though genuinely hearing something terrifying, making a show of flinching.

From his words, it seemed the 'vessel' was either a byproduct of the soul or the soul itself. After a long hesitation, she asked carefully.

"I didn't know the vessel was the soul... Then if the vessel—the soul—were damaged by some power or contract, would that make it completely impossible to use magic?"

"The soul fundamentally isn't an object for transaction or... contract. Especially not yours, Adele."

"Why 'especially' not mine?"

He gazed at Adele with leisurely eyes. Adele intuited that Valentin wouldn't answer this question properly.

After staring languidly into Adele's eyes for a long moment, he raised his finger and pointed to the center of his own chest.

"A god's heart is usually here. In the middle of the chest."

"..."

Adele drew shallow breaths.

"Even if the form... changes, the heart's location remains the same. Even more so for... incarnate forms. The dagger I gave you, Adele..."

"I don't understand the intention behind why you keep telling me these things."

Adele cut off Valentin's words somewhat sharply.

Sometimes it seemed he thought she might turn on him at any moment and try to kill him.

And absurdly, it also seemed he'd be willing to die at her hands if she did.

What occasionally left Adele feeling helpless was the sense that no matter what she said, Valentin wouldn't believe her.

She enunciated each syllable with emphasis.

"I don't want to attack anyone. If you keep saying such things, I won't practice anything related to magic."

"Ah."

He widened his eyes as though hearing something utterly confounding. Soon he shrugged lightly with a casual attitude.

"Of course, with your potential, Adele, you could... kill me."

"Please don't say such—"

"Though at your current level, it would take a solid ten thousand years of... practice to reach that point."

At his additional remark, Adele's ears turned red.

Rather than mocking her pathetic skill, his words pointing out reality brought her heated mind back to cold clarity.

"Having power is always... good, Adele. That power always gives you... choices."