🦋M.o.m.m.y V.i.l.l.a.i.n.e.s.s🦋

Chapter 14

"TILLY, how do you feel?"

"I'm okay now, Father," Tilly assured her father with a smile. "My body temperature is back to normal."

Currently, they were having tea in the "family room." Her father heard about her dispute with the Belington Siblings. He wanted to hear her side so she gave him a full report. But when she told the duke that she used her Mana to protect herself, her father's mood suddenly changed.

She couldn't decide if he was worried or upset that she used her Mana.

"Tilly, don't use your Mana like that again," her father said in a stern voice. "You don't have to fight to protect yourself. That's the job of our knights. And you're engaged with the strongest captain in the empire. How many times do I have to say that your Mana isn't fit for combat?"

She couldn't really understand why the duke was so strict when it came to that.

In her past life, she didn't question her father because like any other noble lady, she relied too much on her knights to protect her. But now, she found it weird that the duke was almost banning her from using her Mana.

[This is suspicious.]

"Father, I know that my Mana isn't strong enough to use in a battle," she said carefully. "But why shouldn't I use it to protect myself if the situation calls for it? I can rise my temperature to the point that the assailant may get burnt by simply touching me. Aside from the uncomfortable feeling of my body burning, I don't receive any external injury or pain. Please tell me why you sound so opposed to my using my magical ability, Father."

The duke looked like he was taken aback by everything she just said.

[Well, I can't blame my father. In my previous life, I never questioned why he was so against my use of my own Mana. And back then, I didn't find the use for it.]

But now, she was so curious about her magical ability.

"I just didn't want you to end up like your mother, Tilly," the duke said with a solemn look on his face.

Her forehead knotted in confusion. "Father, I thought my mother died in an accident?"

"Yes, that's true," he confirmed. "But before that, your mother used to be sick. The doctors and the priests never found the source of her illness. But they believed that it was because of your mother's Mana."

"Mother's Mana killed her?"

He nodded before he spoke again. "When your mother was still alive, her Mana was a small fire inside her heart. Each she used her Mana, the fire grew bigger and bigger until it finally burnt her heart and made her physically ill. The day Marianna got into the accident that took her life, she was supposed to go to the Saint's temple to recuperate there."

She blinked a few times before everything sank in. "Father, why are you only telling me this?" She placed a hand on her chest. "What if my Mana has been literally burning inside my heart all these years without my knowing?"

"Your Mana is different from your mother," her father said. "When you were born, I summoned all the best doctors and priests in the empire to check your Mana. According to them, your Mana is inside your heart but it isn't burning. Thankfully, it manifested in a form of a tiny red diamond. The doctors and the priests assured me that your Mana would never burn the way your mother's Mana did. But of course, they advised me supervise your use of your magical ability." He let out a deep sigh while gently shaking his head. "You never cared about your Mana when you were a kid. Why are you suddenly interested in it now?"

"I just want to be strong enough to protect myself, Father."

"You're not a female knight– you don't need to be strong," her father said sternly. "You're a lady, Tilly. And now that you're about to get married, I want you to focus on your family instead of wasting your time on learning about your Mana."