Chapter 88
At last, finally, at long last.
I'd returned to my sweet home, Linnea Hall.
The distance from the door to the bed was quite a bit, but without hesitation I sprang and threw myself straight onto the bed.
The plush cushioning that sank right in, the fluffy scent of freshly washed bedding, and even a cool breeze.
"I missed youuuu..."
"My room with a bed is the besttttt..."
I pulled the blanket over my head and rolled this way and that, savoring my long-awaited rest.
...But.
"Something feels missing."
Normally, this much would have satisfied me and I'd have fallen straight into a deep sleep.
But after being run ragged by the mage tower and the imperial palace lately, I felt oddly stiff all over.
I had a bad feeling that if I slept like this, I'd wake up with muscle soreness.
"That bed... I need a heavenly bed."
I grabbed my beloved pillow and, as if I were an undead, hauled myself up from the bed with a groan.
Dragging the pillow along the floor, I stumbled down the hallway, climbed the stairs, and arrived at the top floor.
The most splendid place in Linnea Hall.
-Knock, knock.
"...Luna?"
At the signal I'd told her about beforehand, I knocked slowly twice, and a low voice drifted from inside.
"Come in. The door's open."
I opened the door without answering and shuffled inside.
The room was pitch-dark.
Only a single candle on the table flickered softly.
Without hesitation, I headed straight for the bed and flopped down.
"Urrr..."
A groan escaped me of its own accord.
Haaah- this is on another level.
The plush softness, as if my body were sinking into it like a feather, and even the aroma brushing my nose.
A little too warm was the only downside, but I could compromise by simply not using the blanket.
As I buried my face in the beloved pillow I'd brought with me, the rustle of pages turning from the sofa by the candle faintly echoed through the room.
"Did you just come back from the investiture ceremony?"
Princess Celestina tucked a bookmark into the book she had been reading, closed it, and looked at me.
"Nothing happened at the imperial palace, right?"
"Too many things happened... Ah... I'm seriously tired..."
"Hehe. Looks that way."
At my muffled mumbling into the pillow, the princess let out a chuckle.
"And the staff that came with you doesn't look like an ordinary one either."
The princess's gaze turned to the silver-white staff floating beside me, Arke.
"I didn't bring it. It followed me on its own, like a stalker."
Arke whined in protest as if it had plenty to say, but I ignored it lightly.
"What's your problem, punk? If you've got something to say, say it with words."
Princess Celestina rose from the sofa and came over to my side.
Then she carefully sat on the edge of the bed.
The mattress dipping slightly beneath her didn't feel bad at all.
"Right. A little late, but congratulations, Luna."
A soft, gentle voice.
"That makes you the youngest archmage in the Belhart Empire, doesn't it?"
I slowly lifted my head, resting my chin on the pillow as I opened my eyes.
Beyond the candlelight in the distance, the princess's blond hair shimmered softly.
It was different from the blinding gold that sparkled so harshly throughout the imperial palace.
A gentle color, like a wheat field at sunset.
"Thank youuuu..."
I answered almost as if muttering to myself, then suddenly stared at the princess.
"Hmm? Did something get on my face?"
"No. It's just..."
I scratched my head and went on.
"Now that I think about it, maybe I didn't even need to go all the way to the imperial palace."
"...Huh?"
"I mean, couldn't I have received the archmage investiture from you here at Elterion Academy?"
Rather than enduring the suffocatingly crowded imperial palace and being worn down by the First Prince, the Second Prince, the chief steward, and the nobles.
Right here at the academy, in this room, on the most comfortable bed in the world.
How nice would it have been to hold the archmage investiture ceremony here, chatting over tea.
At my petulant complaint, Princess Celestina gave a wry smile.
"I wish I could have done that too, but..."
The princess quietly looked down at her hands.
"I'm very lacking. I'm a royal in name only."
A hollow shell with nothing but the surname Belhart.
That was how the princess often described herself.
"I don't have the power or the standing to oversee an event on His Majesty's behalf."
But.
"Well..."
I murmured with a long yawn.
"I haven't seen every royal, but of the ones I have seen, Princess Celestina seems the best to me."
"...!"
And I wasn't just talking about the First and Second Princes I'd seen myself.
Even in the text I'd scrolled through on a screen.
To me, the most radiant Belhart was Celestina Belhart, the main heroine of <The Academy's Gutsy Mage>.
"R-really?"
"Yes. Still, if possible, I'd rather have it from you than from someone I don't know."
The princess's shoulders gave a small jolt at my words.
A brief silence fell.
A silence where even the crackle of the candle sounded like noise.
With my head buried in the pillow and my body sunk into the bed, my eyelids felt as heavy as lead.
Ah, this is a perfect setup for deep sleep. If I close my eyes now, I could sleep for at least a full day.
Coming to the princess's room was definitely the right choice.
Just as my consciousness began to grow hazy.
A cool, pleasant touch rested on the top of my head.
Princess Celestina was gently sweeping the bangs that covered my forehead off to the side.
"...Me too."
A tiny whisper rang out at the same time.
"I did too."
"..."
If I were being honest, I wanted to be the first person to call Luna an archmage.
The princess's voice was calm and gentle, like a lullaby.
The low resonant hum flowing from Arke and the princess's breath brushing my cheek mingled together pleasantly.
Just as I was about to drift off completely.
In that dreamlike haze, a gentle voice settled by my ear.
"Good night, my archmage."
*
"Y-your condition has improved a great deal."
The imperial physician's voice trembled faintly after the examination.
He looked back and forth between the mana-measuring artifact and Prince Kalian's body, as if he couldn't believe it.
"No, 'improved' doesn't even begin to cover it. The mana toxins pressing down on his lungs and heart... have almost disappeared."
"No wonder breathing has been easier lately."
"I-it's a miracle, Your Highness! This can only be called a miracle bestowed by nature... Congratulations!"
The old doctor bowed again and again, overcome with emotion.
Kalian sat on the bed and looked down at his forearm.
Only a few days ago, the skin that had been deathly pale and lifeless had regained its vitality.
Suuup, haaah-
When he took a deep breath, the pain that had been pricking at his lungs was no longer there.
"A miracle..."
Prince Kalian murmured softly.
Come to think of it, if you don't call the one who works miracles an archmage, what do you call them?
In the First Prince's mind, a girl with the world's most put-upon expression was fixed there like a star in the night sky.
-It was nothing.
-I just pulled out the mana that had been piling up inside Your Highness's body like waste.
The image of her treating his long-standing ailment and then shuffling off again grew clearer with time.
"If the mana that accumulates inside the body can be periodically drained, daily life should be possible. Right?"
"Yes? Ah, yes! In theory, yes."
"Would it be possible for a mage at the level of the Imperial Mage Corps?"
"Th, that would..."
The imperial physician's expression turned troubled.
"I'm sorry, Your Highness, but that's impossible."
"Not difficult, impossible? Why is that?"
"To extract mana accumulated in the body is like trying to pull natural mana out of the air."
The physician went on, wiping the cold sweat beading on his forehead.
"To put it another way, it's the same as trying to scoop up salt by hand after it has already dissolved into water."
"Was it that impossible a thing?"
Then how in the world did Lunaris do it?
"Interfering with natural mana is already the realm of spirits, something beyond humans."
"..."
"If that were possible, high mages who should be immersed in magical research wouldn't be dropping everything to devote their lives to communing with spirits."
As he continued, the physician suddenly let out an ah, as if he had remembered something.
"Right! Come to think of it, I heard that Lord Lunaris, who just held the archmage investiture ceremony this time, is the one and only user of natural mana."
The physician nodded, thinking that if it were that person, it certainly would have been possible.
"No, it would be a treatment only that person could perform."
At those words, Prince Kalian let out a dry laugh.
"So that person was even more outlandish than I'd thought."
"What? Nothing special? Anyone can do it?"
"Tell the imperial mages to do it periodically?"
"Was he saying I should make that person an imperial mage?"
"I seem to have received something far too big in return..."
No matter how important the imperial treasure may be.
Could it ever compare to the life of a royal, and especially the direct heir?
Prince Kalian clenched his fist tightly.
The feeling of strength filling his grip. It was a sensation he had never felt before.
He had lived his entire life in resignation.
A life where it wouldn't have been strange to die at any moment.
The fear that he might not be able to open his eyes the next morning had, before he knew it, become an ordinary part of life.
So he had never been greedy.
He had given up on a life for himself.
As a respected acting crown prince, as the First Prince, he eased His Majesty's burdens.
He would gently soothe his younger siblings, who were old enough to know better yet still hadn't grown up...
And then, when the time came, quietly return to nature.
To be remembered on his final journey as a good son and brother.
That had been his only goal, and yet...
-Thump, thump.
The revived heartbeat rang in his ears.
As the burden pressing down on his body vanished, the feelings he had suppressed also raised their heads once more.
'I want to live.'
He grew greedy.
He no longer wanted to wait for death; he wanted to wait for tomorrow.
He wanted to enjoy more.
For now... yes. He wanted to go outside the imperial palace.
He wanted to bask in warm sunlight, not the light of a chandelier.
Above all else.
He wanted to live for himself, not for others.
He wanted to become the emperor, not the emperor's proxy.
Prince Kalian rose to his feet and walked to the window.
The pre-dawn stars were visible beyond the window.
Overlapped with the brilliant starry-sky scene Lunaris had shown at the investiture ceremony.
"Lunaris Evermoon, huh..."
He mouthed the name softly.
"Let's meet again soon."
His gaze lingered for a long while in the direction where Elterion Academy stood far away.