Time to Turn This Fortune Around

Dinner time.

The Librata estate’s dining room.

The count and Roderic were already seated as usual. I walked in and placed the document in front of the count.

“The contract with Melius.”

“……”

The count glanced down at it.

Right — he couldn’t read Elven script.

I explained.

“It states that Melius will accompany House Librata to the capital. Elves tend to interpret contracts however suits them, but a contract written in their own language is a different matter. With this in hand, Melius can’t go back on his word.”

“……”

The count said nothing, studying it in silence.

Roderic stared at me in open bewilderment.

“……You actually got Melius to agree? How in the world?”

“Oh, I don’t know — maybe I promised to introduce him to a pretty woman?”

Of course that was nonsense.

Melius was unmarried, but if he was looking for a partner, he’d be looking within his own kind. He’d have no use for a human setting him up.

Roderic realized this a beat later and fixed me with a sharp glare.

“What exactly did you promise him? You didn’t hand over something outrageous, did you?”

The count’s gaze asked the same question without words.

He couldn’t make sense of how I had gotten Melius — famously prickly and standoffish — to agree on the spot.

I laid it out.

“Melius wants to return to his own people. For us, this house is a comfortable home. For him, it’s a cage with gilded bars.”

“And?”

“I told him I’d write to the elves on the count’s behalf and request that they send a replacement. That was all.”

The count thought it over.

“And you think the elves will actually comply?”

“That depends on how it goes. But letters going back and forth, decisions being reached — that takes considerable time. And Melius, for his part, probably isn’t expecting any guarantees. He just figures doing something is better than doing nothing.”

“……”

“The contract itself is only binding him to join us for the trip. His accompanying us doesn’t mean he’ll be actively taking our side. But it will create confusion among the other houses — make them second-guess themselves. And it gives us a stronger voice than we had last year.”

I looked at Roderic and smiled.

“From that point on, it’s all down to you, isn’t it, Brother?”

“Mmm……”

Roderic managed only a low groan.

The count studied the contract a moment longer, then nodded.

“Understood, for now.”

“Don’t you want to call a secretary to verify the contents?”

“You’re not the type to tell lies that get exposed instantly.”

The count said it without inflection, then turned to me.

“Come to my study after dinner. I’ll give you the mana potion I promised.”

“I’m grateful, but……”

I looked squarely at Roderic.

Roderic flinched.

The two of us had made a separate arrangement — if I secured Melius’s cooperation, he would get me one more mana potion.

“……”

I didn’t push. I simply held his gaze.

More mana potions were always better for fixing this body of mine, but it wasn’t as though I would die without them.

The real question was how Roderic would respond.

If he simply pretended not to remember — well, that would say everything about the size of his character.

The count asked quietly,

“Is there something else?”

“……Father.”

Roderic spoke, his voice slightly unsteady.

“I’d like you to give Rigen one additional mana potion.”

“One more?”

The count looked genuinely puzzled.

Mana potions were precious. Even nobility couldn’t simply procure them at will.

They were treated as heirlooms — carefully preserved and passed down to the most promising descendants of future generations.

Roderic himself had made a scene when I asked for one at dinner — and yet now he was the one asking for another to be given to me.

Roderic spoke in a tight voice.

“……I made a separate promise to Rigen. I’m asking you to honor it.”

“……”

The count looked at Roderic for a long moment, then nodded.

“If you made a promise, then it must be kept.”

“Thank you, Brother.”

I offered the thanks, but Roderic closed his eyes and ignored me entirely.

Well. At least he was a man who kept his word.

Dinner ended.

Some time later, I was called to the count’s study.

The count was seated behind his desk when he spoke.

“You already know what this is.”

Two small vials sat on the surface of the desk.

A deep, blood-red magical energy swirled inside them.

Grade One mana potions — specially prepared by a dragon.

The count gave me a look that said he had something more to say.

So I didn’t reach for them immediately.

“Come to think of it, you mentioned two conditions for giving me the mana potion. The first was persuading Melius. The second, you said you’d tell me when you handed it over. What’s the second condition?”

“Before I answer that — let me ask you something. Why do you need a mana potion now, after all this time?”

“Hm, well……”

I thought for a moment, then explained.

“As you know, every noble in Karakas is born with some degree of magical ability. A case like mine — not even a trace — is completely without precedent.”

“That’s right. Which is why I gave you mana potion after mana potion.”

“And yet there’s never been a recorded case of someone drinking a mana potion and still failing to gain any magic.”

The count nodded.

Rigen Librata had been a bottomless vessel — no matter how many elixirs were poured in, nothing changed.

“The mana I’ve consumed hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s gathered.”

“Gathered?”

“Right here.”

I pointed to my chest. My heart.

“Simply put — this heart is a complete anomaly. It’s been voraciously absorbing every drop of magic that enters this body and refusing to release a single bit of it. Whatever else might kill me, it won’t be a heart attack.”

Magic was supposed to circulate from head to toe throughout the body.

But Rigen’s heart had been greedily consuming all of it — magic that should have flowed freely, and mana potions on top of that.

The count’s expression went blank.

“……Is something like that actually possible?”

“There’s no effect without a cause. Someone who has consumed mana potions and still has no magic circulating in their body must have a problem with an internal organ.”

I knew exactly what kind of organ could absorb magic that greedily.

But there was no reason to spell that out for the count.

It would also be strange for Rigen to know something so specific.

“I just stumbled onto it while looking into different things, trying to fix myself.”

“……So you’re saying another mana potion will solve this problem?”

“Yes.”

“Very well. Then let me tell you the second condition.”

The count looked at me with full seriousness.

“You will accompany House Librata to the capital.”

“Pardon?”

I blinked.

That was the last thing I had expected.

The count held my gaze.

“You’d rather not?”

“What exactly are you planning to do with me — the family disgrace — by dropping me into the capital? Have me court the wives of important men?”

Even my flippant deflection didn’t move him.

“Do you not want to go, Rigen?”

“It’s not that, but……”

Rigen — this body — was twenty years old.

In Korea on Earth, that would be a fresh graduate heading into military service. But in Karakas, fifteen was already considered an adult. By twenty, having a spouse and children was entirely unremarkable.

I would need to leave House Librata before long and find my own footing in the world.

As easily as possible, naturally — enough income to live on, and as little actual work as could be managed.

“……Fine, I’ll go. It’s a nuisance, but I might as well go see what the capital looks like these days.”

“Is traveling with Roderic the part you dislike?”

The repeated question drew a wry smile out of me.

“You already know the answer — why ask? Should I lie and tell you my brothers and I are deeply devoted to each other?”

“I don’t need that.”

The count let out a slow breath.

“I have three children. Roderic, the eldest. My daughter in the capital. And you. All three have their problems. Roderic is too high-strung. Too rigid.”

“You’re not asking me to become the next count, are you? Because I won’t.”

I said it plainly.

Being emperor had been exhausting enough. Spending my days as an count in some mountain province, buried in work —

What would have been the point of dying and coming back?

The count studied me steadily.

“You have no interest in the title?”

“None whatsoever. Imperial law has primogeniture written firmly into it, doesn’t it? Changing that succession order would require approval from the Noble Assembly. Even saying it out loud — what a dreary, grinding process that would be.”

On the off chance the count wanted to name me as his heir —

He would need to pay bribes to the capital’s nobility, flatter them endlessly, and work them over one by one.

The family fortune would be gutted in the process.

And what I would be left with after becoming count would be a mountain of debt.

In truth, I — Sirik Karakas — had been very deliberate about prohibiting changes to succession orders except in extraordinary circumstances.

Every time a prominent family lost someone in battle, succession disputes would tear them apart. I had written the law specifically to prevent that.

“Above all, the relevant law was something Emperor Sirik Karakas put particular care into. If House Librata — a contender for the second imperial throne — were seen tampering with its own succession, wouldn’t that invite all manner of challenges to our legitimacy?”

“That’s enough persuading. I only have one thing to say.”

The count spoke with quiet weight.

“I want my children to have genuine affection for one another.”

“That’s……”

“I know. The three of you watch each other with suspicion, and the relationship is deeply uncomfortable. I also know that what I’m asking for is idealistic.”

The count spoke without softening it.

“But House Librata is surrounded by enemies on all sides. We are the weakest of the twelve houses. The elves maintain goodwill with us, but the truth is they’ve already made connections with other houses as well.”

“……”

That was about what I had expected.

To the elves, House Librata was just one insurance policy among many.

Judging by Melius alone, they hadn’t sent any of their best.

The count looked at me and continued.

“Brothers and sisters must have genuine warmth for one another. Even if it sounds like idealism. People who can’t manage affection for their own family — how could they ever hold real power? And even if a man pushed his siblings aside and clawed his way to the throne, would that seat be anything but cold and hollow?”

“I take your point, but……”

“A person who cannot embrace even their own brothers — how would they ever embrace the people of an empire?”

The count said it with force, and I fell quiet.

It was idealism.

And it was also completely right.

“I want the three of you to build that bond — to combine your strength and face whatever difficult times lie ahead together. That is the condition I’m placing on this mana potion, Rigen.”

“……”

I thought it over for a moment, then spoke.

“I’ll join the trip to the capital…… and I’ll help Roderic as much as I’m able. Will that be enough?”

“Yes. That’s enough.”

The count gave me a small, deliberate nod.

I collected the mana potions and returned to my room.

I sat cross-legged on my bed and turned the conversation over in my mind.

I had no desire to become count — that much was settled.

But Roderic kept treating me as a threat regardless.

“At least he’s someone who keeps his word.”

The remnants of the original Rigen’s emotions still lingered in this body.

Just as I had found myself speaking formally to the count without thinking, traces of feeling toward Roderic drifted at the edges of my awareness.

Resentment and irritation — but not only those.

I caught myself, and shook my head.

“I’ll think about that later.”

I closed my eyes and focused inward.

Psychic power was a force of the mind — an intention projected outward from the soul seated within the body.

Refining psychic ability also meant gaining clear sight into one’s own physical state.

Even at my current level, old experience made it manageable.

The sharp awareness gathered in my fingertips.

Given time, it spread through the whole of my body.

The structure of bones, the shape of organs, the movement of blood — all of it became visible.

“Whatever else — let’s fix this fortune of mine first.”

I broke the seal on the mana potion.

I had been reborn into a wreck of a body.

It was time to build something new.