Reincarnated as the Villainess's attendant

"This all only feeds to the distorted Arius route, doesn't it?"

Zoemi frowned and glared towards the window, angrily taking in the view of the clear blue sky.

"Yes – although I never thought that his overpowered great-grand-times thirty-father would show up and win him a wife. Especially one like Ehmi."

Burushi scoffed and nodded, satisfied with Zoemi figuring out the reasoning behind the fire sage interfering with the tournament without her help.

"Every time I saw Arisu I had this really horrible feeling – I just wrote it off as a trauma from completing his annoying route, but I was clearly far too optimistic."

"...?"

"...?"

Zoemi muttered to himself which caused both Burushi and Benevirau to look at him with surprise.

"Wouldn't that be a lot of times then? I knew that you can be ridiculously dense, but didn't our class have a similar schedule to the one he was in? I remember running into him and his friends at least three times a day! Even though I also disliked his route and didn't seek a conversation, I still would pass him."

"..."

Burushi sighed Zoemi the tired smile that looked like she was wondering how in the world he could be that much of an airhead to not try to look deeper into the situation, but the black-haired boy stared at him in disbelief.

"I have seen him twice, maybe three times at most the entire time I was in the academy though."

Zoemi said with a concerned frown.

"What? No way – like I said, our schedules were similar and we had to cross paths on multiple occasions. You must have not to pay attention..."

"Burushi, I am an attendant, I was trained to pay the same amount of attention to my master and their surroundings. Not to mention that I can see the unique shadows. I would have noticed Arisu if he was there."

Zoemi shook his head with a grim expression as the blond heroine furrowed her brows.

"No, but... It's not like I don't believe you, but even the first prince had accidentally walked in on Arisu – and we both know that he actively tries to avoid his older half-brother at every possibility..."

Burushi said with concern putting her fist to her mouth and squinting her eyes.

"...with that in mind... doesn't this looks like he is the one avoiding you...?"

After a moment of hesitation, she straightened her back and asked the black-haired boy.

"That would make sense if he had a reason for doing so."

Zoemi tilted his head from side to side, considering the possibility that was the most plausible under certain circumstances.

The problem was – what reason could the white-haired capture target have to dislike someone like the black-haired boy?

"First of all, is having a valid reason actually necessary? Maybe he disliked you because you were thought to be a dark magician? Their reputation is terribly low. Or because back then you were introduced as a commoner adopted by a lower noble who got disinherited y his family – and that was bothering his sense of honor of a noble? It could even be about that you were adopted by a loving parent while his own mother left him and his workaholic father so that she could become the queen? People hate other people with less reason than that."

"..."

Once again Burushi came out with a thought-provoking answer that made Zoemi lower his head deep in thoughts.

"I agree with Burushi. I mean... Vanterl picked a fight with me just because I was a water sage and he saw me as a threat even though I never left Banemor territory for longer than a few days. He ended up settling for blinding me after he realized that I can access the mana from nature so he wouldn't be able to win in a battle of attrition."

Benevriau reminded the two about his presence by joining in and commenting with a solemn expression and a light shrug.

"..."

Zoemi looked up, biting his lips.

"True. In the first place, Arisu's route was full of plot conveniences so I wouldn't put it past the actual Arisu to act in such a way... that said. Gramps, I couldn't heal your eyes before, but with Burushi here..."

He nodded, admitting the possibility, before bringing up a question that bothered him for a while.

"...sorry... that is impossible for me."

But the blond heroine shook her head and her face showed that she was ashamed of herself.

"You see, whatever spell hit uncle Benevirau, it somehow bypassed the normal way damage works... Uncle's eyes aren't wounded, the reason for his lack of vision is that..."

Burushi started explaining but stopped herself, looking to the side trying to figure out an easy way to explain the medical details to someone without knowledge of that particular subject.

"...let's just say that the cells that should not be connected got connected in the worst, most inconvenient way possible – they are functioning on the basic level but not in a way that they should. I can work with internal organs, but the eyes are where I draw a hard line. With my current abilities and lack of a magic version of a laser, o tiny scalpel at least, I can't promise that I would not make the situation even worse than it already is."

She declared without looking up, clearly upset at herself.

Burushi even started clenching her fists as if expecting a certain question to be asked...

"I see... you can work with hormones and all the stuff that already is in the body, but not when there is nothing to use... I assume there isn't even a single healthy cell in grandpa's eyes?"

"!!!!"

But judging by her loud gasp and mouth open in shock as she jolted up staring at the black-haired boy, the question she expected didn't come up – even more, the boy had already seemed to understand the problem!

"That's exactly right! Uncle's eyes are working fine to the point that his body thinks of them as to how they should be. When I try to multiply them, the ones that show up are just as messed up as the ones that were already there. The only answer I have for this ridiculous medical impossibility is that it was caused by magic in the first place, so my medical knowledge can get me only this far. Whatever spell was used on uncle, it was extremely malicious and thorough – it was almost as if Vanterl knew about healing magic and constructed a spell that would render it useless!"

Burushi nodded vigorously and complained, visibly more relaxed as she didn't have to explain her powerlessness in that particular situation.

"Oh. Yes, that makes sense. Back when it happened, a sage with a healing attribute was still alive, that must have been a reason."

"!!!"

"!!!"

Benevirau clapped his hands and nodded in a sudden realization, making the other two jump in shock.

"Don't get your hopes up. As I said, he was killed by the Ghosts of Bellcephora, or rather one of them – namely Raseriat. She had him on his revenge list since he told her that her weight isn't a sickness which she did not take kindly."

The dark-blue-haired man hurriedly waved his hands to stop the blonde-haired girl and the black-haired boy from jumping to conclusions or making any plans connected with the healing sage.

"...well, that is very unfortunate... a healing sage could have known something about fixing broken mana reservoirs..."

Zoemi let out a dispirited sigh.