Chapter 75
Chapter 75
Each member of the Bayern Academy representative team was assigned a private room.
It was smaller than the rooms we used on the Bayern side, but perhaps because it was the kingdom’s foremost academy, the facilities were quite excellent.
After unpacking our belongings appropriately in the assigned rooms, we gathered in the lobby according to the schedule.
Then Carius, who served as the leader of the representative team, gave us some words of caution.
“As you all know, the Academic Festival begins tomorrow. Since we traveled via teleport gate, there shouldn’t be any lingering fatigue. From now on, you’re free to act according to the schedule, but make sure to look around in moderation so there won’t be any issues with tomorrow’s Academic Festival.”
“Yes!”
At the reminder not to cause any disturbances, everyone responded with energetic voices.
After that, the members of the representative team scattered in all directions with excited expressions.
Since it was an Academic Festival, people from all over the continent visited the Madrid Academy.
Along with that, various events and festivities were being held, and there would be no shortage of things to eat and see.
“Shall we go too?”
I also started moving along with Leysias.
Perhaps because it had just passed lunchtime, there were still many people on the streets.
We passed through the crowd and took seats at a suitable teahouse, deciding to wait until the surroundings became less crowded.
“It’s so exciting. I never imagined I’d be able to participate in the Academic Festival starting from my first year.”
“I feel like you’ve already said that more than ten times.”
“But I can’t help being excited.”
She really did seem thrilled, her eyes sparkling.
Feeling a bit sorry as though I were dampening her mood, I continued while looking out the window.
“Still, be careful. They probably won’t reach out directly to you, but you never know with people.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Leysias lifted the wand hanging at her waist and smiled confidently.
After all, she was the heir of the Sheffield Count Family, known as a prestigious magical house.
Even if some mediocre types tried to pull something, she probably wouldn’t even blink.
‘But I didn’t expect them to be this blatant.’
Pretending to look outside, I shifted my gaze.
One corner of the teahouse we were in, the window seat of the shop across the street, and finally the entrance of the alley where the road bent.
I could feel eyes watching us from at least three directions.
At first, I thought they might be planned robbers targeting wealthy academy students, but the faint aura I’d sensed while walking through the streets belonged to those who had been properly trained.
‘This brings back old memories.’
Already more than half a year ago, memories surfaced of wandering Beatrice’s Road with Alice during the Bayern Academy entrance exam.
Back then, there were also guys tailing us like this.
I never would’ve imagined that Alice herself was an assassin.
“Did you notice?”
Leysias, seemingly aware of the gazes watching us as well, spoke in a low voice while sipping her tea.
When I lightly smiled and nodded, she opened her mouth with a look that said I was hopeless.
“Whenever it’s connected to you, there’s never a moment of peace.”
“So, do you dislike it?”
“No, it’s thrilling.”
With a deep smile, Leysias brushed her hair back.
When I joked that I almost fell for her confident state, she scolded me, saying I’d get stabbed by Alice if I kept talking nonsense.
As we chatted idly for about thirty minutes, the street visibly thinned out, so we left the teahouse.
Since there was still some time before the shop Leysias wanted to visit opened, we wandered around, looking at the culture of the Kingdom of Demedrio.
It was smaller in scale than the imperial capital, but since so many people gathered here, there were plenty of curious items.
Among them, there was something peculiar that caught my steps.
“…You’re going to buy that?”
Leysias narrowed her eyes at the roughly shaped stone in my hand.
Seeing an opportunity, the merchant enthusiastically explained, even spitting as he talked, claiming it was a meteorite that had fallen from beyond this world.
It even cost three gold, just because it was supposedly a meteorite.
For that price, I could buy a decent sword.
It was an amount too precious to invest in a mere stone, but I focused on the message that floated above it.
[SYSTEM: Faint divine power has been detected.]
Whether it was divine (神聖) power or nova (新星) power, I didn’t know, but it was clearly not ordinary.
Unlike mana, there were limited mediums that could contain divine power.
They were called things like holy swords or holy relics, like the Excalibur I possessed, and they were so rare that there were only a few across this vast continent.
‘The most promising material needed to reuse the Blessing of Invisibility is divine power.’
Excalibur itself could emit divine power.
However, perhaps because the consciousness of its main body was dormant, it wasn’t absorbed by the Blessing of Invisibility.
I didn’t know whether the divine power in this stone could be absorbed by the Blessing of Invisibility, but as long as it held divine power, it wouldn’t be an ordinary item.
“I’ll buy everything that’s the same as this.”
I flicked a small gemstone and tossed it to the merchant.
He received it with a reverent expression, examined the gem, and then prepared the goods with a beaming smile.
“An excellent choice! I’m just a mere merchant without such connections, but to those with discerning eyes, it fetches an even higher price…!”
The merchant, looking like he’d struck it rich, went on rambling about things I hadn’t even asked.
Watching him, Leysias asked with a worried expression.
“Is it really okay to buy things like that?”
“I have so much money it’s rotting away.”
When I shrugged and replied, she gave a bitter smile as if she’d just remembered something.
The Sheffield family was wealthy as a renowned magical house, but it couldn’t compare to mine.
The assets I possessed alone were several times that of her family.
With the pile of stones put into my subspace pouch, we started moving again.
Since it was about time for the shop Leysias wanted to visit to open, we finished our street shopping and walked straight along the main road.
“The Kingdom of Demedrio is famous for magic, especially artifacts. The place we’re heading to now is somewhere Father told me to be sure to visit whenever I came to the kingdom.”
‘Is that it?’
A large shop came into view at the edge of my vision.
A rare high-rise building for this area, and she told me it was the kingdom’s best artifact shop.
Even while watching briefly, countless people were entering and leaving, and even to my eyes, it looked quite impressive.
But Leysias passed right by it without hesitation.
“Isn’t it here?”
“Places like that only sell standard or mass-produced items. The truly good stuff is only shown to certain VIPs.”
“Wouldn’t the heir of the Sheffield family, or an imperial prince of the empire, be more than enough?”
“More than enough, but my true objective isn’t there.”
Leysias grabbed my arm and continued walking forward.
The main road ended, branching into several alleys.
Even so, her steps moved straight ahead without hesitation.
“…….”
As we entered the alley, a slight sense of caution rose within me.
It was the perfect place for an ambush, so I surveyed the surroundings, but until we reached our destination, I felt no presence.
“We’re here.”
“…Here?”
The place where we stopped was in front of an ordinary residential house with no distinguishing features.
At my question, she smiled lightly and infused mana into her hand.
Then she drew it downward from top to bottom, and along that trajectory, the air rippled and split in half.
“This place sells rare artifacts, so only people of a certain level can enter. You should come in like I did.”
With those words, Leysias stepped forward along the split gap.
In an instant, her figure and presence disappeared, and the split gap was cleanly restored.
“…A barrier.”
I’d seen it several times in the imperial palace, but it was my first time entering one directly.
When I lightly pushed with my hand as a test, I felt resistance, as if an invisible wall were blocking me.
“So that’s how it is.”
I, too, raised mana in my hand like Leysias had done.
Then I traced the barrier up and down as she had, but nothing changed.
“…Is this not how you do it?”
If vertical didn’t work, horizontal; if horizontal didn’t work, diagonal.
No matter how much I tried in various directions, a gap didn’t split open like it had for Leysias.
And since the wall didn’t disappear either, irritation gradually welled up inside me.
“If hands won’t work, I’ll do it with a sword.”
Shing.
A bluish aura surged from the sword I lightly drew.
I swung it without mercy, and a different sensation than before traveled up the blade.
Kikikik-.
With the sound of paper being sliced, the barrier began to split.
A gap formed in the air, and beyond the rippling scene, I saw several people standing there in flustered, awkward poses.
Jijijijik-.
Bright yellow sparks flew over the barrier being cut by my sword.
Among the people on the other side, a young man opened his mouth when he saw it.
“N-no, don’t.”
“Yes.”
Slash.
At the same time, the barrier split completely.
How dare it try to block my path.
A short while later, we were inside the artifact shop ‘Ganyeorin Ogre’.
It was a strange name, but apparently it had its own backstory.
I wasn’t particularly curious about it.
The young man who had collapsed to the ground the moment I cut through the barrier and looked up at me with a vacant expression was the owner of this shop.
He said he’d heard from the Sheffield family that a young lady would be visiting, but he never imagined that I, an imperial prince of the empire, would accompany her.
Normally, as Leysias had done, the door would open when one sliced the barrier while coating their hand in mana, but flustered by my sudden appearance, he didn’t know what to do and temporarily froze it.
And since I didn’t wait, I cut the barrier apart.
“…The barrier that protected our shop for a hundred and fifty years has been destroyed.”
The owner sniffled in front of me, staring at the freshly opened scenery.
Feeling a bit guilty, I compensated him sufficiently with money.
But perhaps the mental shock hadn’t fully subsided yet, because he remained in this state.
“That aside, if you came as customers, does it matter whether you’re a prince or whatever?”
I asked him while sitting back leisurely in a chair.
It was a casual question, but the young owner hesitated and avoided my gaze.
He soon made an excuse about political reasons, but the way his eyes darted around suspiciously gave him away.
‘There’s something going on.’
I stood up, grabbed the guy by the shoulder, and forced him to meet my eyes.
He struggled desperately to break free, but could a mage win against a swordsman in strength?
“…Ah, I really shouldn’t be telling you this.”
Sensing some confidential information might come out, we changed locations.
We moved to the owner’s office of Ganyeorin Ogre, and only then did the young owner let out a deep sigh and open his mouth.
“There are bad rumors going around lately because of the Academic Festival.”
According to him, there was an organization targeting this Academic Festival.
They were a faction of the anti-empire group, aiming for key figures participating in the festival.
The first and second imperial princes were under strict guard, but there was information that I, the third imperial prince, would be moving around alone without any escort.
“So I’m the target.”
Since he knew far too many details for something merely ‘heard’, I narrowed my eyes and glared at him.
The owner panicked and shook his head vigorously.
“I-I have some expertise in the information business! It was highly credible information, and everyone’s avoiding getting involved with the anti-empire faction, so…!”
So that was why he hesitated about letting me in.
I already knew that the anti-empire faction was plotting terrorism.
But to think that I was their target.
‘Things have gotten a bit troublesome.’
The young owner glanced at me cautiously.
His expression clearly said he hoped I’d leave now that he’d told me everything, but I smiled faintly and spoke to him.
“No matter how much you hint, I have no intention of leaving, so keep your eyes down.”
“…I would never think such a thing.”
Cold sweat trickled down his forehead.
His fingertips trembled, and his eyes rolled around restlessly, unable to stay still.
Seeing him like that, as if I’d hit the mark, I let out a bitter smile.
He was a shop owner who was terrible at lying.