I lifted my head from my book to see Zoe entering my room. She was quiet as a cat and otherwise unnoticeable, like maids were supposed to be, but I was keeping an eye out for her as I didn’t know where she had been the whole morning. 

“My lady, I have found some things on mana madness.”

“Oh? Tell me.”

I had sent her to read up on mana because I just couldn’t find enough time between all the lessons and social gatherings. It seemed I was right to trust her efficiency. 

“In general cases, it is caused by an excess of mana present within extremely powerful mages. Magic’s nature is to desire, and in moderation, it helps its users to achieve those desires. When there’s too much mana, it causes desire, which becomes obsessive.”

That might explain why Damian wasn’t interested in any other girls in the novel. They were throwing themselves at him, there was nothing to desire. The obsessive part was already beginning to become evident. 

“This obsession is typically with a cause, like power, money, a kingdom, or religion. However, there have also been cases of love, obsession with an individual. It develops throughout childhood, and the insanity hastens if a subject is not found. The mage wants to have as much of the target of their obsession as possible, but they will never have enough.”

Of course, Damian’s target would be the female lead. Could I successfully lead him to be obsessed with me instead? But that could be dangerous. Besides, theoretically speaking, he would be able to possess more of the female lead, romantically and sexually, while his common sense would keep him from having that kind of relationship with me. 

“Are there cases of two targets?”

“There is one. She was a foreign empress that was obsessed with power and her husband. Eventually, she had to sacrifice her husband for her empire, but in exchange, she conquered numerous kingdoms and expanded her empire.”

That didn’t sound too good. Would Damian pick me over the female lead, or would he toss me aside like in the novel? I must do everything I could to make him choose me. 

“These mages usually died in their pursuit of their target, or were driven mad by their mana and succumbed to insanity. The empress I mentioned was overthrown at twenty-two because of how cruelly she treated her people, and the one that lived the longest was twenty-nine when he dismembered himself. Many don’t live past twenty.”

I swallowed. In the original, Damian was twenty when he tried to commit double suicide with the female lead. He was two months away from twenty-one, but he never made it. 

“Is there any way to cure it?”

“The ones that lived the longest put themselves under sleeping spells, but they broke eventually, overpowered by the desires their mana manifested into, and the mages woke up on the verge of insanity. Keeping them from pursuing their desires quickened the descent to madness.”

I frowned, my heart sinking. But I couldn’t give up. 

“Anything at all?”

“A long shot, my lady, but have you heard of the ifyeffier flower?”

Confusion overcame me and I looked at Zoe, puzzled. I definitely knew the name, but not from the novel. The knowledge was lumped together with all the other books I had read. 

“Something to do with the temple?”

“Yes, my lady. It’s a legend among commoners’ that God gave the first saint a flower that she planted. It blooms every few hundred years and can cure any sickness, and even bring a dead man back to life. Some texts mention it, but it’s never stated what happened to it.”

Even if this could cure Damian, it was ridiculous to wager my brother’s life on a fable.

“Is it real? Can it be found?”

“Many have searched for it, including a mage with mana madness. Her target was medicine, and she sought it out, believing it could cure her. She was seventeen, and her body was found in a mountain a month later, apparently torn apart by demons.”

Well, that wasn’t looking optimistic, but I could try asking at the temple. I was growing irritated with Zoe and her never-ending bad news, and I drummed a finger impatiently. 

“Is there anything actually helpful?”

“My lady, would I have been right to assume that this is about Lord Damian?”

So completely irrelevant and clear. I resisted slapping her impassive face. 

“Obviously. Who else could it possibly be?”

“I apologize for my slowness. However, based on this assumption, I looked into Your Ladyship’s family history to find if you had ancestors that were mages, accessing the information with Her Grace’s permission, of course. The records went back centuries, but no mages, on either side.”

I sat up straight and leaned in. This was new information, and interesting, because mana was passed down through family, so how could Damian be a mage if no one else was? The level of the mana varied by generations and individuals, but someone would have had to be a mage. 

“Certainly, the records may not be complete, but it’s common for noble families to not have any lineage of mana, due to the past persecution of mages by the temple. It’s especially odd that Your Ladyship, His Grace, and Her Grace, all have no mana in the slightest, from the health records I asked the Avington physician for. With someone as powerful as Lord Damian, you should at least have some faint traces of mana.”

It had occurred to me before, but I had just assumed we had extremely little mana, because it was hard to find anyone completely without it. It wasn’t surprising though, given how pure-bred House Avington was, we would have avoided any mages when the temple was against them. 

“So why is Damian a mage?”

“Some of the health records were missing, and I later found that they were sealed. If you’ll remember, my lady, I asked and you granted me clearance a few weeks ago. The missing records showed that Lord Damian’s eye hadn’t been purple, and he had no mana all the way until he was five.”

“What?” 

That was impossible. Magic didn’t randomly manifest, it was purely hereditary. There was much research dedicated to it, with as much evidence as science of my past life. 

“I spoke and wrote to many maids and servants that worked at the castle at that time, and even some that no longer do. They all said that when he was four, Lord Damian fell seriously ill. He takes after Her Grace, who has weak health, so he had been a weak child. Many physicians attended to him, His Grace threatening to kill them if they couldn’t heal him. But most thought he was going to die.”

At this moment, something showed on Zoe’s expression for once. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, perhaps a bit of wonder.

“Not a lot saw what happened next. Supposedly, a merchant came to His Grace. They went to one of the hidden rooms with Lord Damian, along with a small figure in a cloak. Afterwards, Lord Damian’s eyes were purple, and he was completely healed.”

This made absolutely no sense, and I held out a hand to signal Zoe to pause for a second as I went over this information. It didn’t seem any more logical, so I asked her to continue. An idea crept into my mind, but I refused to acknowledge it. 

“What happened to the merchant and the small figure?”

“No one saw the small figure come out of the room, but again, it was eight years ago. No one remembers everything. As for the merchant, his name is Gary Ratched. He is the father of the current Baroness Bryant.”

“What?!” 

I held my head in my hands. How was this related to the female lead’s family in the slightest? Damian was still a child, he shouldn’t have anything to do with her right now. 

“She wasn’t the baroness yet. In fact, the accident happened about a month after Lord Damian’s recovery, and the current Baroness Bryant married Baron Bryant as soon as his six-month mourning period was up.”

“And what, are these things related?”

“I am not suggesting anything, my lady, unless you ask for my opinion. I just thought you would want to know, given your interest in the lost Lady Catherine.”

I was past the point of confusion by now. I could find out the rest from the knights’ report on the accident, but nothing could surprise me anymore. 

“And what does this have to do with Damian’s mana madness?”

“His Lordship is different from past cases. Normally, mana can’t be separated from mages without killing them, but if Lord Damian used to have no mana, it might be possible for him.”

She didn’t mention that the ritual for separating mana from mage required massive amounts of mana, and was there anyone that had more than Damian? I sighed. 

“Additionally, my lady, you could likely purge some of his mana with your holy powers, once you awaken them.”

“Naturally, I know that! Leave, if you have nothing else.” 

“Yes, my lady.”

She left and closed the door just in time as I threw a teacup after her. It shattered to pieces onto the floor. I crossed my arms and scowled into space. 

I would never awaken any holy powers, and Damian would be better off dead than being used by the female lead. I could tell Zoe to look more into that mythical flower, but I didn’t have high hopes. Perhaps the holy dagger could work, like acupuncture? It didn’t seem reliable either. 

How the hell did Damian become a mage in the first place? It would take a miracle to suddenly manifest mana, and two sources were capable of performing miracles, as far as I was aware of, God and the demon king. It certainly wasn’t God, but could it be…? 

It would be suspicious to ask for books on deals with the demon king, especially in the royal library. I could ask for more general information from the tutor the temple was going to send, and rack my brains for more details from the novel. 

A heavy weight was placed on my heart instead of lifted. Was my brother going to die?