Side Story 2: The Story of Jean Emilia
Chapter 3
Year 13 of the Imperial Calendar.
Emilia and Jean became the personal servants of Countess Karina Yermel.
She had initially considered adopting them. But it would have caused a huge uproar in the Imperial Palace if Karina, who was single and had just become an adult, suddenly adopted two children from a remote village.
Even though they were servants, Emilia and Jean wore fine clothes that nobles wore, and they always ate at the same table as Karina. And after Karina returned from the Imperial Palace, they would learn magic from her.
They were basically Karina’s adopted children and disciples, in all but name. The other servants in the mansion knew this, so they treated Emilia and Jean with respect.
Karina, who had taken on Emilia and Jean as her disciples, and Emilia and Jean, who had come to the capital with Karina, each experienced a “new world” in different ways.
First, Karina. She had witnessed a true “genius” for the first time in her life. She had always been proud of her talent as the Chief Mage of the Imperial Palace, but Emilia and Jean were like her talent multiplied several times over.
They had an abundance of innate magic power, a brilliant mind for understanding theories, and an unmatched ability to apply them.
They even managed to decipher the barrier that had been cast on the hut they had lived in, while studying.
“It was a barrier that concealed human presence and continuously supplied magic power to prevent monster attacks, Master. It seems like we were raised on magic power. That’s probably why we survived as infants.”
Karina got goosebumps, seeing them nonchalantly dissect the barrier and explain its properties. And according to them, their mother was also likely a mage. And a very powerful one at that.
While Karina was constantly amazed by her two geniuses, Emilia and Jean were enjoying their new world.
Every day felt like a new beginning since they had moved into the Yermel count mansion.
When they woke up in the morning, the servants would wash them, and they would change into new clothes every day, made of soft fabric.
The bed they slept in was so big that they could roll around endlessly, and the mattress was so soft that they felt like they were sinking into it.
After they finished the assignments Karina gave them, they would go out to the mansion garden and play hide-and-seek with Rem, and sometimes they would have tea and cake in the gazebo.
It wasn’t long before they realized that this warm, fuzzy feeling of contentment was called “happiness.”
And they also realized that the food they had been eating was “rotten.”
Karina, who couldn’t forget the lumps of rotten flour Emilia had offered her, had once asked them, “Why didn’t you know the food was rotten?”
Emilia and Jean had answered,
“It wasn’t in the books…”
“I just… never thought about eating anything else.”
Emilia and Jean were amazed by their luxurious surroundings, which were beyond comparison to their previous life, and they were both very satisfied with their lives at the Yermel mansion.
Emilia, in particular, loved life in the capital, to the point where Karina started to worry.
It was so bad that she had developed a severe case of picky eating and OCD after she learned to distinguish spoiled food.
She would spit out her food, even in the middle of chewing, if she thought it looked even slightly off, and sometimes she would even vomit.
She rarely wore the same clothes twice, so the servants had to bring her new clothes every day. The sheets had to be washed every day, and she would hyperventilate if she found even a speck of dust in her room.
At first, Karina had thought she was just being spoiled, but she realized it was an almost obsessive compulsion.
When Jean, worried about Emilia, had consulted Karina about her, Karina had vaguely thought that she would get over it in time.
But there was no sign of improvement, so Karina had spent a long time trying to cure Emilia’s OCD.
Emilia’s symptoms finally started to improve after a year. But it didn’t completely disappear, so she ended up being nicknamed “Picky Emilia” by the servants.
Karina had actually been more worried about Jean than Emilia before they came to the capital. But contrary to her worries, Jean had adapted to life in the capital without any problems.
Jean was a less expressive child than Emilia, but he was passionate about magic.
In other words, he was calmer than Emilia when he wasn’t studying magic, and he always followed Emilia’s lead when they were doing something together.
Karina had once seen Jean crying. It had been during the time when she had been struggling to cure Emilia’s OCD.
Emilia’s symptoms hadn’t been improving, and Karina had been feeling increasingly depressed, thinking that she had ruined Emilia.
She had been taking a walk in the garden to clear her head when she heard someone sobbing. And the voice sounded exactly like Jean’s.
At first, she had thought she was mistaken. She had never seen Jean cry before. Even when Emilia had avoided him because of her OCD, Jean had just been depressed, he hadn’t cried.
But Jean was really crying. He was sitting under a small peach tree, hugging Rem, his body slumped.
Karina, startled, had hugged him and asked him what was wrong, and he had answered, his voice choked with sobs,
“Master, Rem… He’s not breathing…”
Rem was lying limply in Jean’s arms. Karina quickly checked on him. As Jean had said, Rem wasn’t breathing. He was dead.
Karina, feeling a pang of sadness, gently stroked Rem’s head, his eyes closed peacefully. She had known he was an old dog since she had first met him. And she had thought he didn’t have much time left, as he could barely walk.
He had been sleeping more and more since they had come to the capital, and today, he had finally reached the end of his life.
“Rem has lived a full life, Jean. Let’s bury him in a nice place.”
Karina said gently, comforting him. Jean nodded, tears streaming down his face.
Unlike when they had lived with their mother’s skeleton, Jean and Emilia fully understood the tragedy of death. So it hadn’t taken Jean long to accept Rem’s death and grieve for him.
They buried Rem’s body under the peach tree. Jean took off the sapphire necklace Karina had given him and placed it on Rem’s grave.
“Master, this will keep Rem company, right?”
“…Yes, Rem will be happy.”
Karina smiled kindly and patted Jean’s head.
She had been sad about Rem’s death, but she was also unconsciously relieved that Jean was capable of feeling emotions for something other than magic.
Year 17 of the Imperial Calendar.
Emilia and Jean had grown up beautifully, almost “perfectly.”
Their long, flowing jet-black hair, their smooth, cat-like eyes, their red lips that contrasted with their alabaster skin… They exuded an alluring aura wherever they went.
The servants who had once been amused by their childish cuteness were now starting to take them seriously.
Some even called Emilia and Jean “Karina’s dolls,” and everyone agreed, and at some point, “Karina’s dolls” had become a common euphemism for them.
But Karina had no intention of letting her disciples be mere dolls, objects to be admired.
She started working on bringing Emilia and Jean into the Imperial Palace Magic Department.
“Emilia, Jean, think of a way to break the barrier of Crimea.”
Crimea was a holy nation that worshipped a goddess, centered around a giant temple. The unusual thing about it was that its ruler wasn’t human, it was a divine beast.
Even though it was an island nation close to Atlantis, Crimea hadn’t been conquered yet.
Because Atlantis, despite its military strength, was relatively weak in magic and divine power. So they hadn’t been able to break through Crimea’s strong barrier, which was maintained by the divine beast itself.
The Emperor was looking for someone who could conquer Crimea, and Karina saw this as an opportunity to prove Emilia and Jean’s abilities to the Imperial Palace.
Could Emilia and Jean break the barrier of Crimea, a barrier that even she couldn’t break?
Karina’s answer to herself was, ‘Of course.’
They could do it.
The reason was simple.
They were her disciples.
Year 18 of the Imperial Calendar.
Karina’s expectations weren’t wrong.
Emilia and Jean successfully created formulas to destroy the Holy Nation of Crimea.
But what she hadn’t expected was that they had each created a formula in a completely different direction.
Emilia’s formula was to cast a spell that was the opposite of the barrier’s formula, causing an error in the barrier itself.
Jean’s plan was to erode the land of Crimea with a curse, disrupting the divine beast’s divine power and destroying the entire nation.
It was definitely magic that the current mages of Atlantis couldn’t create.
Karina presented the two formulas and Emilia and Jean to the Emperor.
“Are you not Countess Karina’s servants?”
“Your Majesty, they are no longer my servants.”
“Then who are they?”
“These two are the mages who will lead Atlantis for the next thousand years.”
The Emperor, after listening to their explanations of the formulas and plans, and how they had come to the capital and reached his audience chamber, was truly impressed.
“Very well, I will believe Countess Yermel’s words. I acknowledge your abilities. But you must prove that you are truly worthy of leading the empire for the next thousand years. Emilia, Jean, you will personally lead the invasion of Crimea.”