The slow footsteps on the dirt ground drew closer and closer.
In life-or-death moments like this, the brain of a guy used to chasing deadlines and passing classes thanks to "smooth-talking presentation" skills began operating at maximum capacity. Standing before prominent figures who had the power to wave their hands and end my lowly commoner life, playing dumb or panicking and crying were both terrible strategies.
I had to appear harmless, yet standard enough so they wouldn't find me an eyesore.
Just as that magnificent dress stopped exactly two steps away from me—a safe enough distance to act.
I took a half-step back to yield space, my right heel lightly touching my left heel without making a sound. My right arm swung up gently, the hand pressing firmly against my left chest where my heart was. At the same time, my left hand tucked neatly at my hip behind my back. I bowed. A textbook, perfect, and fluid greeting posture with no wasted movements.
With my eyes still glued to the ground, not daring to look directly at the girl's face, I spoke. The volume was just loud enough to hear, clear, articulate, and without a single tremble of a country boy:
"Greetings, My Lady, and to you, Mr. Butler. May I ask if Your Ladyship has graced this remote, rustic place with your presence to command this humble one with anything?"
The space suddenly fell into an eerily quiet pause.
There was only the sound of the evening wind whistling lightly through the banyan canopy. I maintained my bowing posture, cold sweat beginning to bead at the back of my neck. It felt exactly like holding my breath in front of the thesis defense committee in my past life, terrified that the professors would spot a logical error in my paper. But here, a millimeter of error meant losing my head.
From my bowed perspective, I saw the butler's leather shoes shift slightly. Clearly, a peasant boy in mud-stained clothes executing a flawless noble greeting etiquette, while speaking with perfectly structured articulation, was something extremely bizarre in this world.
"Young man of this village," the butler's voice spoke up, strict and cold, but not containing excessive contempt. "This posture is not something a peasant child could secretly learn on his own. Who taught you..."
Before he could finish his question, Aiselin raised her hand. She wasn't irritable, just gently signaling the butler to stop.
"Sebastian, thank you for your attentiveness," she said, her tone calm but carrying absolute authority. "But I can handle this matter myself."
Her words to her subordinate were both considerate and decisive. The butler blinked slightly, immediately bowed, and obediently withdrew in silence.
"You may raise your head."
Hearing the order, I slowly raised my head.
And the moment my vision focused on the person opposite me, the pace of time around me seemed to have been mercilessly paused by someone pressing a button. My brain, which had always prided itself on its agile processing ability, suddenly went on a complete strike.
I truly could not believe my own visual system at this moment. Standing before me was not just a noble lady, but a beauty possessing extremely high... physical damage.
Despite the fading sunset behind her, she radiated an aura so brilliant that it completely overshadowed the shabby backdrop of my village. Her raven-black hair, thick and smooth, cascaded all the way past her waist, contrasting absolutely with her porcelain-white skin, flawless from every angle. On that elegant face, the corners of her lips curled up slightly into an incredibly composed smile—not the disdainful smirk of the upper class, but an elegance and haughtiness to the point of perfection.
But what truly made my heartbeat skip a few beats were those eyes.
A brilliantly bright blue, as sharp as the two most expensive sapphires fully charged with energy. Those eyes were deep, sparkling under the light, and locking onto me. Swept by that gaze blazing with curiosity, I felt as if every calculation hidden in my head was being cleanly decrypted.
My gaze lightly skimmed over her attire, and my internal "appraisal radar" immediately reported an overload error. She wore a dress made of deep blue velvet, as profound as the ocean. Along the dress were intricate silver vine embroidery patterns, so exquisite that the margin of error in every stitch was practically zero. A sparkling gemstone necklace reigned upon her slender white neck, accentuating her absolute aristocracy.
I swallowed lightly, trying to force my respiratory system to reboot.
"I am Shirakawa Aiselin, the eldest daughter of the Shirakawa Ducal Family," her voice rang out, composed and aristocratic, yet carrying an unconcealable excitement. "I was on my way back to the estate after a tea party when I happened to witness you using a magic with a rather... peculiar trajectory."
Crack...
My entire nervous system seemed to short-circuit. The danger radar inside me immediately jumped to the highest alert level. "Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant, Zero!" I silently cursed myself. Chasing deadlines in my past life wasn't enough; in this life, I brought disaster upon myself just because of a minute of itchy hands solving mathematical equations with ice?
Was I about to be thrown into prison for the crime of "using magic without a license"? But wait a minute... In the scrappy bits of information I found about this world, the magical proficiency of commoners was pitifully low. Nobles and royalty didn't even bother to manage it, considering it a bunch of petty tricks. So why... would the Eldest Daughter of Duke Shirakawa care about an ice cube with a curved trajectory?
Aiselin slightly lifted her chin, her cold sapphire blue eyes sweeping from me to the tree where the ice cube was gradually melting. On the outside, her expression remained as tranquil as an autumn lake, without a single ripple of excess emotion. Her slender hands, wrapped in white silk gloves, lightly interlaced and rested before her waist—an initial posture of elegance and perfection that could not be faulted.
But if there had been a brainwave-measuring device placed next to the grand lady's head right now, it would have surely exploded from overload.
"He just cast chantless magic, didn't he? No, it was definitely chantless! Look at that feeble mana core, how could he control the mana flow without using language as a medium? Not to mention the trajectory of that ice mass... it didn't follow a conventional static straight line! Did he calculate the glide angle or use residual mana to force it to steer? That precision... that trajectory... perfect, truly too perfect!"
The heart of a genius within Aiselin's chest was beating wildly. "How? What kind of demonic method did this commoner ultimately use to interfere with the physics of magic? I must ask! I must extract this secret at all costs!" But her noble status did not allow her to utter those eager words. A noble never begs a commoner. The pride of the Shirakawa family forced her to swallow all that academic fervor back down.
Aiselin blinked, the corners of her lips curling into a thin, haughty curve. Her voice rang out, as indifferent as if discussing the weather:
"A theoretical system... a bit anomalous, but can be tentatively called interesting." She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. "I am quite curious as to what little trick someone with such a low mana capacity as yours used to deflect that ice projectile. If you can provide a plausible explanation, I might consider rewarding your... creativity."
No rushing, no loss of control. Just an offer reeking of charity bestowed from on high.
But that indifferent smile could not fool me.
My system finally rebooted successfully. She had stared at the tree for too long, and despite her efforts to hide it, I still caught a brilliant flash of light in those sapphire eyes when she mentioned the word "deflect". Her breathing was also slightly faster than normal.
I breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. It turned out this girl was trying to save face. She acted all high and mighty on the outside, but inside, she was definitely thirsting for knowledge. Since we were fellow "academic enthusiasts," a former UET student like me had a perfect way to deal with her.
I slowly raised my head a little higher, no longer cowering like at the beginning. Looking straight into those brilliantly waiting blue eyes, I smirked slightly in my mind.
I yielded slightly to her intense gaze. That promise of a "reward" just now was a perfect signal of concession. It turns out that in any world, whoever holds the "core technology" has the right to speak up.
Still maintaining the measured attitude of a subordinate, I knew I had grasped the hilt of this negotiation.
"My Lady flatters me. How could I dare to hide my humble knowledge from someone with such sincerity?" I replied softly, my tone shifting from fearful to steady.
"You just mentioned a reward. To be honest, the theories I applied require extremely high precision. In exchange for sharing the entire operational method of that special magic, I only hope to receive a corresponding academic sponsorship: magic books for research. I believe this is an investment that will bring no losses to the Shirakawa family."
Having said that, I maintained my bowed posture, waiting.
The wind swept through the canopy, creating a rustling sound. The atmosphere was so quiet that I could clearly hear the sound of dry leaves being crushed under Aiselin's shoe soles. The lady of the Shirakawa family did not reply immediately; her sapphire eyes narrowed slightly, boring deep into the person standing before her as if evaluating a completely anomalous creature. (a reckless fool)
End of Chapter 3