STABLE BOY ; Trash of the Count's Family

30. ANTI-MAGIC

"Oh, it's you, Mama's boy."

South quickly lowered his head when he saw Rosalyn approach.

"Oh, don't bother with that. I just came to thank you for helping us that day. I hadn't said it yet," she said. "You are very kind to help people you don't know."

South shrugged at that, "it was something anyone would do."

"...it really isn't," Rosalyn chuckled. "But, anyway. Please accept my gratitude."

"Of course."

Come to think of it, South still didn't know why Rosalyn's teleportation magic went weird back then. It seemed to bring the wolf children to the nearby inn just fine, but failed to bring just the three of them closer to Cale.

Which... was odd. They didn't have any problems in the story. Or maybe they would've made it to Cale eventually, South just jumped the gun?

...either way, it all ended well, so it shouldn't be anything to worry about.

"Oh. Is that a new hairpin? It's very eye-catching."

South winced at that. "It is, isn't it," he sulked, "Young Master insisted I use it. It's very shiny for a stable boy like me."

"But it will be fine for a coachman," Rosalyn said. "You just need to dress the part. It can be used as a hat pin as well."

South sulked further, "I don't want to be the head coachman. At this rate when I get back to the county, Count Henituse will give me another promotion to secondary Coachman just to give me an excuse to pay me more. I need him to stop."

"...why, though?" Rosalyn wondered, "isn't a promotion good?"

"No it is not," South insisted strongly, "they give me more money. I'm afraid. What do I even do with all that money? I haven't collected my paychecks for the last five months so far, and I still have money sitting around somewhere."

"Wow," Rosalyn only said, baffled.

South wondered if he should be more formal with her. She's a princess, after all— but, whatever. South shouldn't actually know that information, and Rosalyn didn't seem bothered at all.

"So what brings you to the stables, Miss?"

She blinked with surprise at that.

Then, after seemingly taking a moment to decide that referral was fine, she continued. "And... nothing, really. I was just curious. Honestly, I thought it was odd that you showed up so quickly after our magic failed."

"Oh. So I'm very suspicious," South reasoned.

Made sense. He would also be skeptical of someone that just showed up so conveniently in their time of need.

"Yes, you were. But when I sit here," she moved so she had a comfortable spot on the crate to the right of him, "nothing about you is weird. You're not even a mage... so, of course, you couldn't have caused my magic to go weird. So, it was just my misunderstanding."

South shrugged at that.

South knew nothing about the magic of this world. Just that it seemed to work with a mana system like fantasy games in his old world, and he never played games a lot. So, he wouldn't know anything.

"Though... you should be careful," she told him. "You may not have done anything, but I still think you might be the cause. Your body reacts strangely to magic."

Rosalyn tried to explain, but South didn't quite understand.

"It won't cause trouble for you, of course," Rosalyn assured, "this time was just a coincidence. You were near to my very pinpoint magic, so it went a little awry and sent us to a slightly wrong place than intended. On the bright side, I think most magic would slightly malfunction around you. It's like your body rejects mana."

"Whuh?" South didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.

Rosalyn chuckled at his bewildered expression.

"Don't worry. Sorry that I rambled like that," she assured. "But it's nothing to concern yourself with. If I consciously avoid your weird presence while casting magic, nothing goes wrong, after all. So it's not like it's a perfect anti-mana physicality or anything. Maybe you're just allergic to mana?"

South was starting to lose the conversation. "I stopped understanding halfway through that."

Rosalyn just giggled. "It's just a hypothesis, so don't need to humour me."

Right.

South decided to let it be.

Whatever the case with that, it didn't matter to a stablehand like him, anyways. He never intends to touch on the magic of this universe, and he certainly didn't want to get too involved with the technicalities of it all.