Noble Lady Reformation Guide - Chapter 72: To the North (3)

— When you teach Siern, you’ll have many questions.

Before heading north, Dereck had visited Lord Melverot to give his final confirmation.

Melverot, who sat working with his legs crossed arrogantly, was pleased with Dereck’s intent, but as Siern’s father, he had something to say.

— Many mages have tried to teach Siern and gave up. Each had their own reasons, and many ended badly.

— …

— I just want Siern to adapt well to noble society. To properly learn magic according to the star-level system and to become a lady worthy of the Rochester family. I’m not interested in anything else. Just keep any questions that may arise during that process to yourself. That’s all.

Though it sounded straightforward, Melverot’s expression carried a hidden nuance.

It seemed he was concealing something, but Dereck wasn’t in a position to question him.

Besides, he wasn’t particularly interested in the details. He only needed to win over Siern and teach her what was necessary.

Still, he couldn’t shake off a strange sense of intuition.

*

A freezing wind was blowing.

The carriage, completely destroyed by the monster’s corpse, was no longer usable.

Passing the terrified servants, Dereck stepped forward and spoke.

“Lady Siern. I am Dereck of Ebelstein.”

He had decided to try his first strategy—communicate through dialogue.

He knew many instructors had tried the same without success, so he had no great expectations. The fact that she didn’t care about the beast corpses or the stench of blood made it clear she wasn’t reasonable. Still, he decided to try.

Then came an unexpected reply from the girl holding the bodies.

“I heard about you from Serena.”

Her disheveled hair fell over her forehead. Her white eyes, visible between the strands, looked directly at Dereck.

Her voice was clear and pure, with an intellectual air. Her tone was calm and composed, and for a moment, she gave the impression of being a kind and elegant person—if it weren’t for her bloodstained appearance.

“I heard you’re here to teach me magic.”

“Yes. Though of humble status, I make my living teaching magic.”

“Interesting.”

Surprisingly, the conversation seemed to be working.

Just as Dereck thought his first method might succeed, Siern’s bluish hair began to float, and magic surged through her body.

A blue energy began to radiate from her white eyes, and she smiled ecstatically.

“Then… you must be stronger than me?”

“What?”

As soon as Dereck replied, Siern vanished.

Her movements, blending with the icy wind, were hard to track with the naked eye.

When Aiselin and the servants blinked, Siern was already in front of Dereck, her skirt lifted by a gust as she floated.

Her bare feet dug into the snow, and at that moment, a massive wall of earth surged up to crush Dereck.

There was no chant or preparation. The speed of her actions didn’t match the body of a mere girl.

‘Transformation magic? Level 3? No… almost full level 2.’

Dereck couldn’t help but be surprised.

There are exceptional talents who reach level 3 before their coming-of-age ceremony.

With the support of a prestigious noble family, one or two of those talents may emerge per generation across the continent.

But for a girl in this barren land, with so many failed instructors, to reach this level… was nearly impossible.

Crash! Crash!

Dereck stepped back swiftly to dodge the wall of earth and lowered his stance. His eyes turned serious.

Whoosh!

The earth walls continued trying to crush him, but the magic arrows he instantly conjured shattered them before they could form.

Not only the servants were surprised—even Siern widened her eyes in shock.

Dereck’s reaction speed far exceeded normal.

‘From the start… this isn’t careless magic. Nor does it seem wild magic. What kind of person is this man?’

There’s one immutable truth about magical talent. Effort, instructors, and a good environment all play a role.

But if one had to choose a single decisive factor, it would be blood. First, blood. Second, blood. Even a third… still blood.

And this girl was the daughter of a six-star mage. Her high level was no surprise.

However, her magic style was far different from Melverot’s. It was hard to believe she was the daughter of a man who had strictly followed the aristocratic magic path.

She was so free-spirited, it made one doubt she was his biological daughter.

“You dodged?”

Siern, regaining her cold expression, snapped her fingers and looked at Dereck. There had been killing intent in her attack. She wasn’t a girl who knew how to hold back.

If ranked by stars, Siern’s magic was nearly level 3.

Transformation Magic Level 2: ‘Earth Wall.’

Transformation Magic Level 3: ‘Acceleration.’

However, her magic didn’t seem bound by that system.

“Lady Siern.”

Dereck’s tone grew even lower. Straightening up, he adjusted his loose leather gloves and looked at her sternly.

“You must not attack people without reason.”

First, establish the correct rule. That was Dereck’s style.

Diella, Ellen, and Denise always said the same. Dereck always spoke the truth.

Correct principles are irrefutable. But Siern gave a mocking laugh as she looked at him.

“You sound like someone from the southwest. They say the open plains and mild weather there are like paradise.”

Another blast of cold wind stirred her hair. Despite the chill that would make most men tremble, she walked barefoot and gloveless through the snowy field.

Her appearance was unusual.

“Do you think that just because I don’t attack without reason, others will leave me alone?”

“That’s what it means to live in a civilization.”

“Those words don’t apply here in the north. You kill before being killed, eat before being eaten. That goes for both beasts and humans.”

The girl’s values were extreme.

Growing up in the northern cold might explain that mindset, but Siern was a noble lady. Surely she had lived more protected than most.

Yet with eyes as cold as ice, she spoke calmly.

“If you want to teach me… prove your worth.”

“And what is that worth?”

“Not dying by my hands.”

The girl stood among corpses. She felt no guilt in taking a life.

Rabbits, wolves, deer, bears… whether snowy field beasts or humans, if necessary.

The girl’s eyes, surrounded by bodies, were equally serene. For her, skinning a rabbit or a person was the same.

Some would call it purity. Others, madness. Dereck was clearly one of the latter.

Bang!

Siern vanished again, stomping hard. Her movements, sliding between bare trees, could no longer be tracked by eye.

Just as Dereck began focusing on the sound…

Whoosh!

A spell was cast: ‘Sound Block,’ level one. Siern had blocked his hearing.

‘Her combat instinct is impressive.’

Dereck remained calm, and Siern’s pressure intensified.

Level one combat spells flew at him—shockwaves, ice spears, fire arrows.

And despite all that, she didn’t cancel the level 3 ‘Acceleration’ spell on herself.

Boom! Bang!

Dereck felt a strange affinity as he watched her.

Her lone stance in that frozen tundra reminded him of parts of his own past.

But there were two key differences. She had been born with noble blood, a gift from the heavens.

And her combat style was excessively raw.

To Dereck, who had endured countless battles, her moves were still immature.

Crack!

Crunch! Crack! Crackle!

Siern’s eyes flew open.

By the time she came to, all her combat spells had been shattered by magic arrows.

Intercepting magic before activation was Dereck’s specialty. No matter how sharp someone’s combat senses were, it wasn’t easy to deal with Dereck’s flexible magic use.

This time, Dereck propelled himself from the ground and charged. The distance closed in an instant, but Siern leapt backward, her tousled hair flying.

“Trying to catch me with speed? What a foolish idea…”

Just as she tried to mock Dereck for his “foolish idea,” a sharp sensation ran down her spine.

It was a realm beyond the five senses—the sixth sense. An instinct engraved in Lady Siern, who had grown up roaming the north and hunting monsters.

Thud!

Crash!

Without gaining much distance, Siern rolled across the snowy ground.

Dereck’s foot was stepping on Siern’s shadow. It was the two-star combat magic “Shadow Bind.”

It was a spell that used mana to trap the opponent’s shadow and immobilize them. Though slow and impractical, Dereck compensated for those flaws with his innate magical sense.

“H-how did you do that…?”

She tried to ask how he had tracked her, but it was a pointless question.

Dereck approached Siern, who lay on the ground due to the binding spell.

He had learned tracking magic directly from the legendary tracking mage, Drest Wolftail.

Dereck had already developed a sense capable of reading an opponent’s movements through mana flow.

The level 3 transformation magic “Acceleration” was useful, but had a fatal flaw—it left mana traces with every movement.

That meant that when facing a high-level tracking mage, every move would be exposed. They were experts in tracing and reading magical effects.

In combat, the natural enemy of a transformation mage was a tracking mage.

Of course, Siern, who had fought purely on instinct, was unaware of this theory.

And from the perspective of someone without that knowledge, it looked like Dereck could predict all her moves.

“Lady Siern. If you continue causing chaos, I—”

“Haap!”

Before Dereck could finish his sentence, Siern picked up a rock buried in the snow and threw it.

Caught mid-sentence and off guard, the rock flew and struck Dereck’s temple before he could dodge.

Thud!

It wasn’t a fatal wound, but his concentration broke for a moment, canceling the binding. Siern took the chance to cast Acceleration again and bolted away.

Whoosh!

Her movements were astounding.

“…”

Dereck stood still.

A line of blood trickled down his temple. A drop fell with a plop onto the pristine snow, staining it red.

Dereck, who had been silently watching the scene, finally pressed his fingers to his brow.

“Mr. Dereck! A-are you okay?”

Aiselin, worried, rushed toward him but lost her breath the moment she met his gaze.

Because Dereck’s expression was unusual.

“…”

Dereck was, by nature, someone who was not swayed by emotions.

Even when Diella insulted him, or when Ellen looked down on him, Dereck never showed any sign of agitation.

Even if someone he had just met tried to kill him, threw a rock at him, and made him bleed… his steel composure would remain unaffected.

However, Aiselin couldn’t help but swallow nervously upon seeing Dereck press his forehead and wipe away the blood.

Should it be called a ghostly aura, or perhaps a murderous intent?

An indescribable sense of intimidation could clearly be felt in Dereck’s cold gaze.

Just because he didn’t act recklessly in a fit of rage didn’t mean he lacked emotions. If he was in a bad mood, he was in a bad mood. He simply considered it trivial.

That’s why Dereck spoke in a low and calm voice, without raising it.

“You remember I said I had thought of three methods, right?”

“Y-yes… yes, you did…”

He continued in a voice as sharp as a blade.

“Looks like we’ll have to use the third method.”

“Mr. Dereck…”

“If you have any objections, please state them, Lady Aiselin.”

Even in that situation, by asking for his companion Aiselin’s opinion, he was the epitome of composure.

Aiselin couldn’t oppose him. She merely took a step back… and with a trembling voice, barely managed to speak.

“Please… be merciful…”

“Understood.”

At that moment, Dereck’s figure vanished.

*

Swoosh!

Siern held her breath.

She found herself face-to-face with Dereck, who had suddenly closed the distance and was staring at her intently.

The killing intent in those red eyes felt familiar. It was like that of the giant wolf I saw during a snowstorm, while wandering alone through the snowy mountains as a child.

In the wild world, everyone ends up in one of two positions. Predator or prey.

That position is relative. A predator won’t always remain one, and prey doesn’t always stay prey.

In this vast world without rules, it all depends on who you meet. If you encounter a rabbit, you’re the predator. If you meet a wolf, you’re the prey. It’s that simple.

Then… am I the predator or the prey now?

The moment I asked myself that question, Dereck’s hand reached out to grab me by the neck.

Crack!

Crunch!

However, with sharp instinct, Siern grabbed Dereck’s hand and bit the callused palm hardened from training.

When his grip loosened for a moment, she leapt again, but it was a useless move.

No matter how much acceleration magic she used, Dereck seemed to know exactly where her movements were going. In this case, the difference in speed was almost irrelevant.

Snap!

That’s why Siern decided to move in a straight line to maximize distance.

Trying to confuse him with zigzagging movements wouldn’t work, so she decided to widen the gap with pure speed.

However, that too was part of Dereck’s plan. When the distance had significantly widened, Dereck raised his hand and gathered mana.

Whoosh!

Dereck extended his hand into the air and closed his fist tightly.

“The energy of the earth that embraces all without hesitation…”

Siern’s intuition screamed something was wrong.

Aiselin felt it too.

It was the first time she had seen Dereck chant a spell.

Dereck rarely did so.

The boy, who had reached the limit of his magical sense, had become so advanced that he could cast level 1 and even level 2 spells without chanting.

Whooosh!

The gathered servants looked on in disbelief.

The amount of mana concentrating around the boy, who was about to undergo his coming-of-age ceremony, far exceeded that of most noble sons.

Whoosh!

Rumble!

Dereck was not someone who favored a combat style based on brute force. Despite being born with innate magical talent, in basic duels he relied more on his combat sense than on magic.

He often used magic to trick his enemies and gain a psychological edge.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t fight with pure force.

He simply chose not to. However, if it was a situation that required overwhelming the enemy with absolute power, Dereck wouldn’t hesitate to use high-scale magic.

He had already reached a considerably high level among 3-star mages.

Boom, boom, boom.

The incoming magic had to be avoided.

It was the moment Siern swallowed and took her stance. But the magic Dereck unleashed was not something that could be dodged.

Boom!

The ground began to crack, and a blizzard rose up.

“Ahhh!”

3-star combat magic: “Earthquake.”

It was a high-level combat spell that overturned the ground in a wide area, subduing the opponent along with the terrain.

However, Lady Siern’s combat sense had already reached its peak.

If the magic couldn’t be dodged, the caster had to be stopped. Even though the distance was dangerously wide, she had to close the gap quickly and interrupt the chanting.

Just as Siern was about to activate her acceleration magic and dash forward…

The ground was no longer there.

Wrapped in a feeling of weightlessness, she saw Dereck casting magic from afar.

There was no emotional agitation in his gaze, even as blood trickled down his temple.

‘This scale of magic… has he already finished chanting?’

His chanting rhythm was always several beats faster than anyone could imagine. At that moment, she understood. They were on completely different levels.

The killing intent in the boy’s eyes was now entirely that of a predator.

And the prey… was her.

Whoosh!

In the end, all that remained was the fall.

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