Lord of Charm

The dinner was over, and Lady Atress went back to her mansion. She kept feeling like something wasn't right, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Gale went outside and waited for Lena to join him, and as expected, she joined him shortly after. He smiled at her; he knew she brought him gifts. Most of the swords decorating his rooms were gifts from her, and each sword was far more valuable and practical than a simple decoration.

Although she tried her best to spoil him, she was simply too self-centered and never spared any thought to the possibility he has different points of interest than hers. She was his safety net in case he failed to take care of himself when Donne inherits the Earl title.

"How is your training going?"

"I'm learning a lot from my master; my fire spells have reached quite a high level too. However, she lets her friend help me with my wind spells as she doesn't have much expertise with them. How about you? I think you've gained a bit of muscle since the last time I saw you."

"As expected of you, big sister. Only you would call it a bit of muscle and treat it as a small change."

He was a bit upset, he was waiting to see her astonishment when she first sees him, and he wanted to hear her compliments, too. While he wasn't desperate for praise from others, he did like it when Lena praised him. After all, he liked it when she gave him gifts and affection.

"Haha, I'm sorry, you turned into the most handsome man in the world, Little Gale."

"Don't pat my head as If you were appeasing a kid."

"But that's what I'm doing."

"Fine, fine, just let me go."

Gale quickly released himself from his sister's grip and they kept on walking around the city together.

"Gale, have you unlocked some kind of magic?"

"No, why?"

"Are you telling the truth? Back then at the dinner table, I felt a movement of mana coming from you towards Atress, While I'm not sure whether dad had noticed it too because of his medical condition, I'm confident in what I sensed."

Gale didn't answer immediately. He first thought of the pros and cons of telling his sister the truth. Eventually, he realized that she is the one person he can always trust, but still chose to hide the details, as he didn't know if the god he met allowed him to tell her everything.

"I didn't know it was magic until now, and that it operated using mana like other spells. I found out I can charm people when I try thinking about it repeatedly, but I only found out about it at today's dinner when I wanted Atress to change her mind about withdrawing her proposal. I still don't know the restrictions and potential of this ability, nor the way it works."

"It seemed like your ability went into her head and affected her brain. Try doing it on me, try charming me into telling you my secret."

"Are you sure? What if it works?"

"It's ok, even if it does, I still trust you to keep it for yourself. Even if you don't, it won't change much if the information is spread. It's more important to help you understand the extent of your powers."

She was practical as always, she'd never let him play around unsupervised with his new abilities and preferred to keep an eye on it until he gets it under control, so he won't hurt himself.

"All right, thanks. Sister, won't you tell me your secret?"

He tried to say it out straight while thinking in his head "tell me your secret, tell me your secret."

"Hmm, I can feel your spell trying to make me tell you my secret, but it's quite an obvious interference from outside, I'd take it as an offense and as an attack against me if someone else was to use it on me."

"If it's so aggressive, how come Atress couldn't feel it? Even if her sensitivity to the mana movement isn't as sharp as yours, she should've felt it when I did it directly to her. Or wait… how is it possible you can pick up something father couldn't? Although he is sick, he is still in a different phase, it should be impossible for you to have sharper senses. Unless…"

A big, beautiful smile bloomed on Lena's face as Gale's jaw dropped.

"Hahaha, is my smile really so beautiful?"

Obviously, Gale's jaw dropped for a different reason.

"Your smile is as beautiful as a volcanic eruption."

"Huh? Are you saying I'm the type of beauty that nobody hopes to be around?"

"Forget all those stuff! Is what I'm thinking true? For you to have better perception than Father, it must mean you're also at the fourth stage! How is it possible?"

"Bingo! I just ranked up a few days ago. I came home to see you because of my breakthrough. I felt some rest was due."

"But you only ranked up less than 3 years ago!"

"That's why my master told me I broke the records of the Miyena kingdom by breaking into the fourth stage so young and so soon after breaking through the third stage. It only took me 2 years and 8 months to rank up from the third stage to the fourth."

Gale was naturally happy for his sister. Besides, the stronger she was, the more benefits he could get as her brother, right?

However, there was still the problem of the charm. Was it impossible for him to charm ladies above the fourth stage? Wouldn't it mean he can only charm young girls who still haven't developed their strength to the maximum? And he couldn't do it near anyone in the mage phase either, or else they would sense it.

"Lena, there's something else I want to try."

Lena stopped and turned to him to allow him to do his magic, in the literal sense. Gale looked at her and started thinking in his head "I'm your brother, you can trust me" repeatedly.

"I'm your brother, I'd never hurt you. You can trust me with anything."

"Yes… I trust you with all my heart."

"You can share anything with me, I will help you with it as long as I can."

"I don't think you can help me with that."

Lena spoke slowly, entranced.

"Even so, I'd be happy if you share your troubles with me."

"Okay, Nina is my friend, I threatened to beat her in combat practice every day if she doesn't protect you for 5 years."

Gale was caught unprepared. Does it mean Nina was at least an Expert Magician? After all, she came a year ago when Lena was still one as well, and Lena would only aim for the best she could have. Suddenly, Lena snapped out of it with a betrayed look on her face.

*SLAP*

"You made me spill out my secret!"

"AHH, it hurts!!"

"Uhm, I'm sorry, I just wanted to teach you that your magic can't deal with the consequences. Anyway, how did you succeed this time?"

Gale chose to ignore the blatant lie and cooperate with her attempt to change the subject.

"Well, you told me it felt intrusive last time, so I thought about how I could make it feel less intrusive. I realized I should make the charm more suggestive, with less forced logic, and make it sound reasonable to you. So, I told you that you could trust me since I'm your brother, and indirectly made you tell me your secret instead of just demanding it."

"So, you can charm higher ranks too, but they will snap out of it later, be careful not to make them do something they will regret enough to go after your life."

"Yeah, I guess. What about the mana movement?"

"It was much more subtle, I believe most mages would feel it only if they searched for it, and someone in the magician phase wouldn't feel it at all."

Apart from his burning cheek, Gale was quite satisfied with what he learned about his powers today and tried to think of ways to improve his abilities as he returned home. Nina wasn't there, but now that he knew who she truly was, he didn't worry about it. Since she is his bodyguard, shouldn't she worry about him?

He got to his bedroom when he started feeling an odd sensation of exhaustion he had already felt once recently.