Chapter 108
The purpose of this visit to the imperial palace is more or less a house call, I suppose.
There are quite a lot of sick people in the imperial palace, but there are roughly two people I need to see this time.
One is physically ill.
The other is mentally ill.
I'd more or less treated the patient with the physical problem, so...
It was time to go see the patient with the mental problem.
...I don't know how things ended up like this. I just want to go home.
*
“Well, well~ Look who it is. The busy lady finally decided to show up.”
The moment the door opened, a crooked-nosed man greeted me as the sharp stench of alcohol wafted out.
The Empire's Second Prince, Valerius Belhart.
He was sprawled diagonally across a spacious sofa, drinking strong whiskey straight from the bottle.
“Lady Miriel told me about it. I wish you'd contacted me a little earlier. If you had, I wouldn't have touched a drop of alcohol all day today.”
“Uh... It was decided so suddenly, you see. I'm sorry.”
When I bowed my head just enough, Prince Valerius snickered and rose to his feet.
His muscles rippled beneath his half-open shirt.
I was already losing the battle in the chest department.
“Speaking of contacting me, didn't you come rather late? I heard you'd arrived at the imperial palace quite some time ago.”
The prince's eyes narrowed like a snake's.
“Don't tell me you went to see my older brother Kalian first?”
“Yes, well... I did?”
“Tsk, tsk. I don't understand. He's a walking corpse who won't live long anyway. Rather than waste time on someone like that, wouldn't it be more productive to have a drink with me?”
“For starters, I'm still under the legal drinking age in the Empire.”
“Whoops~ That's right, isn't it? I forgot for a moment because you're the archmage. Once I take the throne, I should start by lowering that pointless age restriction.”
The prince clicked his tongue and once again drank straight from the bottle.
Self-centered thinking, and a ruthlessness that saw even family as nothing more than rivals or obstacles.
As expected, he was the Second Prince I knew.
He wasn't merely bad-tempered; he was a man with several screws loose in his head.
“Well, none of that matters.”
Prince Valerius casually tossed the empty bottle onto the floor.
With a loud crash, shards of glass flew in every direction, but...
“I have a lot to talk to you about, Lunaris Evermoon.”
The prince approached me without paying the slightest attention to the broken glass.
“That magic of yours, and the view beyond the wall you showed at the investiture ceremony...”
“Wait a moment. I'm not particularly good at expressing myself coherently.”
I raised a hand and cut the prince off.
The knights in the room glared at me, clearly wondering how I dared interrupt a member of the imperial family, but I continued speaking without a care.
“Rather than explain it a hundred times, I think it would be faster to show you once.”
“...Show me?”
“Yes. So why don't we have a light spar? I think that would let Your Highness experience it firsthand more easily.”
Prince Valerius's eyes widened.
“Ha...”
A sinister light gleamed in his eyes, like a beast that had discovered its prey.
“That's a splendid idea!”
Without hesitation, the prince picked up the sword hanging on one wall.
“I knew I liked you.”
Shing—the razor-sharp sword aura spilling from the drawn blade weighed heavily upon the air in the room.
“You're definitely different from those other old windbags, those magic-slinging mage bastards who are all talk!”
“...Are you planning to spar here?”
I looked around in bewilderment.
“Um... isn't this your bedroom?”
“Is it really all right to swing swords and set off magic in a place filled with expensive furniture and decorations?”
“Shouldn't we move somewhere? A training ground or something...”
“Why bother moving? Your magic is enough.”
The prince pointed at me with the tip of his sword and continued.
“Spatial alteration magic. With that, we can fight without being constrained by the location, can't we?”
“...Are you sure it's okay for me to use that?”
“I don't care. More importantly, don't hold back. It annoys me even more when someone goes easy on me out of some half-baked consideration.”
The corners of the prince's mouth stretched into a grin almost wide enough to reach his ears.
“Cast your magic with the intention of killing me.”
...This guy really was insane, wasn't he?
I clicked my tongue in disgust and asked him with a weary expression.
“Are you serious? This isn't a joke—you could really die.”
“Ha! Then whoever dies is just a dumbass.”
The prince snorted at my words.
“You can only break through a wall by risking your life and throwing yourself against it.”
No, but...
This may be a bad thing to say, but you have absolutely no reason to be desperate...
I mean, I had my revelation while eating a sandwich, for crying out loud.
Getting impatient and fretting won't make something happen.
Sometimes the answer comes suddenly when you empty your mind and cool your head.
“If you came before me with a casual attitude, then get lost right now. I don't have time to waste.”
Of course, the voice of my heart didn't reach Prince Valerius at all.
No, more importantly...
If he dies, I'll be wanted as a murderer of royalty, and my life will become a real pain, won't it?
“Hey! The same goes for all of you. If you don't want to get caught up in that archmage bastard's magic and die like dogs for nothing, get out. Now.”
As I slapped my forehead in disbelief, Prince Valerius lowered his voice and growled.
The knights lined up along the wall flinched, their faces turning ashen.
“P-Prince! Even so, this is dangerous...”
“Shut up.”
His wrist seemed to move, and a flash glinted.
At the same time, a fountain of blood burst from the shoulder of the knight who had spoken.
“Aaargh!”
Clutching his shoulder, the knight collapsed to the floor.
“Go on, try acting up again.”
Prince Valerius twirled his razor-sharp sword and spoke in a cold voice.
“Anyone who opens their mouth or doesn't leave will be considered prepared to die. I'll cut you all down.”
Only then did the knights support their wounded comrade and hurriedly leave the room.
The sight of them retreating was strangely familiar.
It seemed that the Second Prince's violence was an everyday occurrence here.
The room was empty in the blink of an eye.
All that remained were one mad dog and me, who wanted to leave the imperial palace this instant.
“...Haaah.”
I let out a deep sigh and slowly raised my right arm.
That lunatic wouldn't listen no matter how hard I tried to stop him.
It would be better to finish this quickly and leave.
The moment I lightly snapped my fingers,
the ceiling vanished and the walls were erased.
The magnificent bedroom that had been glowing brilliantly plunged into darkness.
“O-oh...! Yes! This was the view...!”
Countless stars began to appear, scattered across the pitch-black sky.
The starry sky overlaid the space.
“This should be enough. Then...”
It was precisely the moment I was about to suggest that we set some rules.
“...?”
In the instant it took to blink,
Prince Valerius, who had been standing some distance away, was suddenly right in front of my nose, the corners of his mouth curling into a grin.
“...!”
A blade shimmering with mana came crashing down, aimed directly at the crown of my head.
Just before the blade touched my body,
I reflexively folded the starry-sky space shut.
As my body moved far backward, the prince's sword cleaved only an afterimage.
“I knew it! I knew you'd dodge!”
Rather than look disappointed, the prince burst into mad laughter and awkwardly readjusted his stance.
“Now that's a mage bastard I can respect! Your reaction speed is incredible!”
“...Excuse me?”
“What was that just now? I swung my sword assuming you'd evade with Blink, and yet I still can't believe it didn't touch you!”
“Starting a spar just like that is a little...”
“What are you talking about? In a fight to the death, what the hell would you need a signal for!”
The prince laughed like a madman and closed the distance once more.
“The one who survives gets to make the rules and call it justice, doesn't he? What can a dead man say!”
-Ssshhk! Whoosh!
Sword strikes wrapped in mana came crashing down like a sudden shower.
It was swordsmanship forged by instinct and savagery, quite literally optimized for killing the opponent.
I repeatedly folded the starry-sky space, letting the sword strikes slide past me in every direction.
It wouldn't have been difficult to keep dodging until Prince Valerius wore himself out, but it was certainly a nuisance.
“Why do you keep doing nothing but dodging?”
Separate from the nuisance, the one thing worrying me was that I had no idea how much I should hold back.
I figured his toughness was probably about on par with Senior Gaios's...
“Why don't you try doing something? Didn't you say you'd show me directly—the view beyond the wall?”
Prince Valerius shouted at the top of his lungs, spraying spit everywhere.
There really was no beast more impossible to reason with.
“Ah, what a pain.”
I muttered to myself as I stopped in midair.
A sigh escaped me without my realizing it.
In fact, I had insisted on setting rules not for my own sake, but for the prince's.
That might have been different if we'd fought in a normal sparring arena.
But from the moment the starry sky unfolded inside this room...
“The match is effectively over already.”
Unless my opponent was someone who could see the same view I did.
No—even if he were an archmage who had crossed the wall or a Swordmaster, it would be difficult to use his full strength in this world.
I quietly watched Prince Valerius as he tried to split my head open.
Raising my index finger, I drew a circle over the starry sky.