If Sikar Blake said something bad had happened, it was truly something bad.

“Tell me what you saw to make you say that.”

“What the queen gave you wasn’t the flower of poison.”

“Really? So it was actually just black tea?”

“Yes. It was black tea that Sharin procured.”

“So it was really just a gift to get along well with me?”

As I tilted my head, Sikar Blake smiled as if he found my confusion cute and patted my head.

“Why would the queen, with all her pride, want to befriend you? It was just Gillian telling her to look after you.”

No wonder that lofty queen wouldn’t genuinely want to befriend me.

“But…”

Sikar Blake scratched my forehead instead of his own, with a slightly regretful expression.

“What? Why are you scratching my forehead?!”

“Because I think you’ll feel regret.”

What could he mean by that? Seeing Sikar Blake hesitate, unlike his usual self, it seemed like it was something I wouldn’t want to hear.

I took a deep breath as if to say I was ready and spoke.

“I’m ready to hear it, so don’t beat around the bush. Tell me.”

“It seems the queen fed the flower of poison to Hersia.”

“How do you know that? What you saw was Sharin’s memory, wasn’t it?”

“Sharin was the one who procured the flower of poison on the queen’s orders, and Sharin was the one who brewed it like tea and gave it to Hersia.”

“So Sharin fed Hersia the flower of poison and still acts friendly with her?”

“It seems that’s why she’s acting even friendlier.”

Trying to kill someone, or being in the process of killing them, and still acting friendly—it was utterly incomprehensible.

“Does that even make sense?”

“The queen ordered Hersia to be poisoned. For those who see orders as just work, it’s merely doing their job.”

“I can’t understand it. But why would the queen want to harm Hersia?”

“We’ll have to find out, but I have a guess even without investigating.”

“Huh? How can you guess?”

“It seems they plan to pin the crime on Hamel’s family after Hersia dies and confiscate their assets.”

“What? What did you say?! Killing her cousin just for that?”

“In politics, it’s hard to call that ‘just.’”

“So what do we do now? What about Hersia?!”

Unlike me, who was panicking and at a loss, Sikar Blake seemed quite calm.

“It hasn’t been a month since she drank the tea, so giving her the antidote herb should work. Don’t worry. It takes over a month for the flower of poison to fully become poison in the body, so Hersia won’t die before then.”

Only then did it feel like I could breathe again. That was truly a relief.

Sikar Blake rested his chin on his clasped hands and said.

“But there’s nothing to celebrate yet. We still haven’t found the other human with black eyes.”

I hoped that even if they came here, they wouldn’t catch Gillian’s eye…

“By the way, did you send someone to that village?”

“Yes. If a human with black eyes arrives, I plan to have them brought here immediately.”

“No, don’t just bring them. Invite them politely.”

“I’ll think about it.”

After finishing, Sikar Blake circled around me and said.

“By the way, you’re too frail.”

“I’m not that frail.”

Sikar Blake suddenly reached out, pulled me onto his lap.

“What are you doing?!”

“You couldn’t even dodge this.”

“Who dodges something like that?!”

“Everyone except you would.”

Sikar Blake lifted me and set me down beside him.

“Look closely.”

Then, like a fisherman waiting for a bite, he stared at the entrance.

Just then, Durion, who was passing by, heard Sikar Blake’s call and walked over.

“Yes, my lord.”

As soon as Sikar Blake saw Durion approaching, he tried to grab him, but Durion easily dodged his hand.

“What are you doing?”

Then, Sikar Blake looked at me, not Durion, and said.

“See? You should be able to dodge a move like that easily.”

Does this guy even think? When will you start thinking normally?

“Durion’s a knight. It’d be weirder if he couldn’t dodge.”

“Durion wasn’t always this quick. People from the world you lived in are appearing here, so you can’t be complacent anymore. If Gillian finds out Kian Blake is alive, he won’t let it slide, so who knows what might happen. I can’t always be by your side to protect you, so you need to learn at least one skill.”

“What do you want…”

“Starting tomorrow, we’re going to the training room. That way, if something dangerous happens, you can at least protect yourself a little.”

From the look on Sikar Blake’s face, it seemed I had no choice but to go to the training room tomorrow.

“But I’ve never held a sword in my life except for cooking…”

“Don’t worry. You won’t need to use a sword.”

“So you’re telling me to fight with my bare fists?”

Sikar Blake came over and lifted my hand.

“Naturally, these fists couldn’t even catch a mouse. I have an ancient magic wand. I haven’t had a use for it, so it’s been stored away, but it’ll be useful for you.”

“A wand?”

A wand, like the magic staff wizards or witches use?

“I don’t even know how to handle magic. Can I really use a wand?”

Sikar Blake stood up, took my hand, and said.

“Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“To the study.”

In the study, Sikar Blake took out a wand from his safe, wrapped in parchment like a scroll, just the right size to hold in one hand. It felt almost like a fairy wand.

Sikar Blake held the wand with both hands, extending and retracting it, and said.

“Stretch it like this, and it extends; fold it like this, and it shrinks.”

It was truly fascinating how the wand stretched and shrank like a spring.

“It’s really an amazing thing.”

“That’s not all. Since you have no magic power, you need to drink a magic elixir to use the wand. Focus your mind and swing the wand where you want to use it. If you don’t focus, the magic from the wand might attack you, so keep that in mind.”

“I have to drink a magic elixir? Is it really okay for me to drink that?”

“It doesn’t taste great, but it’s expensive, so don’t waste a single drop.”

“Drinking it doesn’t mean I can use magic, does it?”

“Of course, drinking the elixir doesn’t let you use magic. It just lets you use this wand.”

Sikar Blake handed me a pouch full of magic elixir.

“Always carry this with you, and make sure to drink it whenever you need to use the wand. Since you’re an ordinary person with no special abilities, the elixir’s effect only lasts three hours. Remember that. Got it?”

And so… from the next day, I was thrown into that terrifying, infamous training room.

⭐⭐⭐

Lunatic.

Why am I cursing? Because Sikar Blake, claiming he’d train me, placed a dragon right in front of me.

Was I cursing because the dragon was huge and terrifying? No.

I was cursing because the dragon was so adorable. It was a baby dragon, a tiny hatchling.

Of course, it wasn’t real, just a simulation, but it was so cute I couldn’t bring myself to attack it.

Sikar Blake handed me the wand and told me to cut this adorable hatchling in half—an outrageous thing to say.

Attack this cute hatchling? He’s out of his mind. Absolutely.

“It’s too cute!”

“It may look cute, but if that thing breathes fire at you, you’ll change your mind. No time to hesitate. If you get hit by that hatchling’s breath, you won’t get burned, but you’ll feel like your body’s burning.”

“No way… It’s just a simulation.”

“Even in a simulation, if you’re not skilled, your memory will make you feel the heat.”

Sikar Blake sat back leisurely, arms crossed, watching me as if to say, “Do well.”

And at that moment, the baby dragon started yawning at me. So I raised the wand high.

“I’ve never used something like this!”

Even then, his words about focusing stuck in my mind, so I closed my eyes, raised the wand, and swung it wildly.

After swinging for a while, I opened my eyes in the quiet stillness to find Sikar Blake and the tiny hatchling sitting there, watching me.

“What… what’s going on?”

“Who fights with their eyes closed? In a real battle, you’d have just burned to death.”

“It’s because you said you’d train me but only gave me this wand! It’s like teaching someone to fish by throwing them into the sea!”

“That’s how you teach someone to swim—throw them into the sea first.”

“So that was just a warm-up?”

Sikar Blake smirked slightly and said.

“Something like that. Now I’ll teach you how to swing the wand properly.”

After returning from a campaign, his tone and personality had clearly reverted to their old ways.

“Say you’ll teach me.”

Sikar Blake looked at me, startled, then corrected himself.

“I’ll teach you. Let’s start again.”

“Say you’ll do it.”

“…I’ll do it.”

Sikar Blake seemed to comply, but his tone was quite cynical.

Soon after, he snapped his fingers, and the cute hatchling in front of us vanished.

It was so cute, I felt a bit reluctant to see it go.

Sikar Blake grabbed my hand, made me grip the wand tightly, and said.

“This wand doesn’t have the power to cast grand magic, but it can electrocute an opponent.”

“Like some kind of electric shockwave?”

“You could say that, but it’s stronger than that. It has a long range, and if it hits directly, it’ll make someone tremble for at least a few minutes. It can buy you time to escape in a dangerous situation.”

I examined the wand in my hand closely.

“It’s amazing that such a small wand can produce that kind of magic.”

“But if you swing it wrong, you’ll get shocked, so be careful “